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Oct 30, 2024

McDonald's now has 'right to repair' broken machines for McFlurrys

A broken ice cream machine is a familiar inconvenience to McDonald's customers. Franchise owners have complained about difficulties fixing the machines, McDonald's itself has poked fun at how often

A broken ice cream machine is a familiar inconvenience to McDonald's customers.

Franchise owners have complained about difficulties fixing the machines, McDonald's itself has poked fun at how often the machines are seemingly broken, and there is even a dedicated independent site for customers to see when and where they might be denied a McFlurry.

Those worries may soon be a thing of the past, after the U.S. Copyright Office issued a new set of exemptions last week that allows restaurants to repair equipment used in "retail-level commercial food preparation," which includes those soft-serve ice cream machines used to make McFlurrys.

Public Knowledge, a consumer advocacy group, and e-commerce website iFixit petitioned the U.S. Copyright Office for the exemption, which went into effect Monday.

"There’s nothing vanilla about this victory; an exemption for retail-level commercial food preparation equipment will spark a flurry of third-party repair activity and enable businesses to better serve their customers," said Meredith Rose, senior policy counsel at Public Knowledge.

Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act makes it illegal for third parties to bypass digital locks on any copyrighted materiel, including software used in commercial devices like those McDonald's ice cream machines, even for repairs.

What that has meant for McFlurry fans until Monday is that every time an ice cream machine in a McDonald's location breaks or has any kind of technical problem, it can only be repaired by the manufacturer and copyright holder.

Since 1956, McDonald's has partnered with the Taylor Company, an Illinois-based manufacturer, for its ice cream machines, leaving only the Taylor Company with the "right to repair" them.

According to iFixit, which looked inside a McDonald's ice cream machine last year, the devices contain "lots of easily replaceable parts."

Rose called the new exemption "an overdue shake-up of the commercial food prep industry."

Max Hauptman is a Trending Reporter for USA TODAY. He can be reached at [email protected]