Page 7 - IAV Digital Magazine #591

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Even the Feds Are Tired of McDonald's Broken Ice Cream Machines
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfcRyDQAevc
By Maxwell Zeff
Federal regulators want to fix McDonald’s broken ice cream machines, and they’re asking to
expand right-to-repair laws to address the issue. In a letter to the US Copyright Office on Thursday, regula- tors asked for commercial soft-serve machines to be exempt from current laws making them difficult to repair. The laws also make it more difficult for you to get a McFlurry.
“In the Agencies’ view, renewing and expanding repair-related exemptions would promote competition in markets for replacement parts, repair, and mainte-
nance services,” said the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission in a joint let- ter.
The McDonald’s broken ice cream machines have found themselves at the center of the right-to-repair movement. The
reason McDonald’s ice cream machines are always down is because of copyright law. Only techni- cians licensed by the com- pany that made the device are allowed to touch the machines, and they charge over $300 for a 15-minute servicing, according to the letter. The DOJ and the FTC identified commercial soft-serve machines as
one of four device cate- gories that would benefit from an easing of copyright laws.
The broken ice cream machines are not just frus- trating to customers, it’s a pain in the neck for McDonald’s too. A soft- serve equipment break- down can lead to a single restaurant losing $625 per day. The scarcity of licensed repair technicians also means there’s always a long wait time to fix a soft-serve machine.
McDonald’s buys ice cream machines from Taylor, a restaurant equipment man- ufacturer, and Taylor is the only one allowed to fix
these machines thanks to copyright law. When a Taylor ice cream machine breaks, it displays nonsen- sical error messages to confuse third parties. A repair company, Kytch, fig- ured out a way to decode the messages, but McDonald’s told its stores not to use it.
Regulators cite an iFixit report from August, which breaks down one of Taylor’s soft-serve machines and describes how to repair them. iFixit describes McDonald’s ice cream machines as a huge right-to-repair issue.
Oftentimes, right-to-repair disasters come from unlikely places, such
as John Deere’s
tractors, Polish train scan- dals, or even McDonald’s ice cream machines. The common theme is that copyright laws allow large manufacturers to dominate markets, leaving small businesses and consumers frustrated. Regulators now seem to be paying more attention to these old, glar- ing issues.
Also on Friday, McDonald’s restaurants are experienc- ing widespread outages around the world, accord- ing to Time. It’s resulting in many stores being tem- porarily closed, as staff are unable to process electron- ic orders.
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