Famed YouTuber MrBeast is suing the company behind his branded line of MrBeast Burgers and demanding it be shut down after customers blasted their meals as ‘inedible’.
The YouTube megastar – known for his extravagant cash giveaways – filed the lawsuit in New York District Court Monday, accusing Virtual Dining Concepts of damaging his reputation by selling undercooked burgers and cold fries with his name on them.
The Florida-based company partnered with the 25-year-old – whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson – to launch the food-based venture back in 2020, using storefronts of other existing restaurants to cook up the sandwiches.
Known as ‘ghost kitchens’, the concept was initially a hit – with Donaldson successfully parlaying his fame so that a mass of more than 10,000 lined up for the opening of the first MrBeast Burger location in New Jersey’s American Dream mall.
It also saw more than a million burgers sold before Donaldson even had the opportunity to advertise them.
But since then, the suit claims Virtual Dining Concepts has repeatedly damaged the YouTuber’s reputation by not ensuring the burgers’ quality – at times even serving up raw food. It also claims that Donaldson has yet to receive ‘a dime’ from the venture.
The suit included snippets of reviews from customers to illustrate this dissatisfaction – roughly a month after Donaldson abruptly called an end to the experiment last month, citing ‘quality issues’ with participating ghost kitchens.
‘Customers have referred to the burgers as being “disgusting,” “revolting,” and “inedible,”’ a section of federal filing reads, claiming Virtual Dining’s alleged failures in monitoring its ghost kitchens has irrevocably harmed the YouTuber’s reputation.
It goes on to add that those unhappy patrons have aired gripes such as ‘it is sad that MrBeast would put his name on this,’ and that they had ‘never had something so nasty.’
Other quoted criticisms of the roughly $10 burger included claims of ‘inaccurate marketing’, ‘big name, poor food,’ and ‘very upsetting for the high price.’
One simply called the food ‘the worst burger I have ever had.’
Using the chorus of public opinion, the complaint seeks to allow MrBeast to terminate his agreement with Virtual Dining Concepts (VDC) effective immediately, shutting down one of the largest virtual brands in the US in the process.
It cites how more than half of the more than 1,000 MrBeast Burger virtual restaurants ‘have less than two (out of five) stars,’ a marker Donaldson’s lawyers wrote ‘is well-below the median score of four stars across the platform [Yelp].’
Other so-called proof of Virtual Dining’s supposed failures included a Reddit post from a few months ago in which a patron claimed a MrBeast Burger he purchased was ‘mostly just raw’, with photos attached as evidence.
An anecdote from a reviewer New York – ‘echoing the sentiments of thousands,’ as attorneys put it – stated his MrBeast Burger was ‘the absolute worst burger I’ve ever eaten in my entire life.’
That person added of their experience: ‘It was like eating spoonfuls of garlic powder. fries were soggy and ice cold. don’t waste your money.’
The claims aired in suit were further bolstered by multiple separate exhibits that contained similar assertions and accounts from people at large.
In one, lawyers shared a Florida father of two’s email to MrBeast’s reps in January after a poor MrBeast Burger experience.
In that correspondence, the man – whose name was redacted to protect his identity – described how he felt as though he had “let his children down” by ordering from Donaldson’s service.
It reads as follows: ‘My children adore and love watching Mr Beast videos daily. This is not a complaint or grab for attention or money back. It’s more to make you aware of a situation that may be tarnishing your name with a product that just is being misrepresented.
‘On December 30th my son, 11 and daughter, 8 planned out an evening with their father and it consisted of introducing me to Mr Beast while eating MrBeast Burgers.
‘Sounded like a good plan to me, so I first tried to help them with the App which continued to say it was not available in my country, the USA. After a while, I decided to just order through Mrbeastburger.com.
‘This went fairly well but after the order was placed over I noticed that I could not tip the driver which ended up being Uber picking up the order,’ the account continued.
‘I ended up paying cash to the driver but I’m not sure how often this happens or if it was a glitch. Drivers may not want to pick up orders because of this which delays your food being delivered in a timely manner.’
The man went on to recall how he received the food in unbranded packaging that he was able to trace back to a nearby 7-11.
‘After the order, I was given an address that I was able to trace back to a 7-11 in Winter Springs, Florida,’ the man’s recollection read.
‘After witching and learning more about Mr. Beast, I just don’t see how a place like 7-11 should be preparing and serving $10.00 burgers and expensive fries for a figure so well known and loved by so many people.’
He quickly added: ‘Especially when they arrive in a white plastic bag with white generic Styrofoam containers and no pickles or any condiments on the Beast Fries.
‘With that being said,’ he went on, ‘I did not want to bring any attention to this with my kids or bring down their excitement. I just know by the look of disappointment on their faces when the food arrived and how items were missing upset them.
‘Prior to delivery they were showing me pictures of other delivered Mr Beast food and what it looks like so this is how I knew they were sad. They quickly got over it and ate their food.
‘I did not want to take pictures of their food or talk about it so that’s why I only took photos after we ate,’ he added.
‘I’m not even going to get into how everything tasted, Its just the misrepresentation that I am saddened by and how it let me children down.’
Of this, attorneys for Donaldson wrote : ‘Customers do not expect their MrBeast burger to come in a 7-11 bag. That is not what anyone expects from a MrBeast-branded product.’
In another attachment, lawyers for the world’s most subscribed YouTuber offered a compilation of ‘just a handful’ of the thousands of negative reviews that have been published online by MrBeast Burger consumers over the years.
Citing the mass of media – taken from videos from food reviewers and posts on social media – attorneys claimed that ‘there are literally thousands’ more negative reviews, articles, and comments from people who are ‘deeply disappointed’ by the product, and’ by the fact that MrBeast would put his name’ on it.
‘Because the entire business is based on the tremendous global value of the MrBeast brand, it is MrBeast himself, and not Virtual Dining Concepts, who has borne the brunt of the (justified) attacks and criticisms,’ the suit states.
It adds that MrBeast made every effort to cause Virtual Dining Concepts to fix’ these significant quality control problems as soon as he learned of them, but they refused and/or were incapable.’
As a result, the suit states that Virtual Dining Concepts ‘has caused material, irreparable harm to the MrBeast brand and MrBeast’s reputation,’ not only through its abject failure to address ‘siognigicant’ quality control problems with the virtual business, but also through other material breaches of the agreements with MrBeast.’
That broken agreement , the suit states, came after Virtual Dining repeatedly denied MrBeast his valuable approval rights by posting his name, image, and brand on social media and elsewhere without first obtaining his written approval and consent.
It also adds that while the business has made millions of dollars, ‘MrBeast has not received a dime.’
The suit concludes that due to the material, irreparable harm to MrBeast’s reputation and brand caused by Virtual Dining Concepts’ failure to uphold its end of the parties’ agreement, MrBeast has no choice but to seek… a judicial declaration that he has the right to terminate the MrBeast Burger business.’
It also claims that Donaldson is entitled to unspecified damages from ‘the harm caused by Virtual Dining Concepts’ multiple material breaches of the agreements between the parties.’
‘Consistent with MrBeast’s philosophy, if the MrBeast Burger virtual business cannot provide the highest level of service and products to its customers, then it should not continue,’ it states.
The suit – which comes as so-called ghost kitchens exploded in popularity during the pandemic but have since seen their success slow drastically – is currently making its way through the Manhattan federal court system.
Donaldson has yet to publicly comment on the suit, but has been doing so through a spokesperson.
Last July, about two years into the venture, Donaldson bragged abouyt the astonishing amount of money the burger chain has earned in the US thus far, then tapped at $100million.
The firm started with 300 locations in the US, but quickly expanded to 1000 locations across North America.
In January, the cash earnings from the operation stood at $150,000,000 in revenue.
However, after accounting for the 30% fee paid to actual locations, as well as the cost of ingredients, packaging, shipping, storing, and other expenses, the net profit was somewhere around $30,000,000 – an amount supposed to be split between Donaldson and Virtual Dining Concepts.
It is not clear how much the operation has made in the six months since. The suit is currently ongoing.
