MrBeast Burger’s haunted kitchen has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the YouTuber — days after he sued them for allegedly selling undercooked meals.
The star, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, sued the company last week for wanting to end their deal, claiming they were selling “disgusting” and “inedible” food.
Now Virtual Dining Concepts – the company that operated the virtual fast food chain – claims the creator made false statements against them and bullied them.
In a lawsuit filed Monday in New York and obtained by Variety, the company accused MrBeast of breaching its contractual obligations and willful tortious interference.
“This case is about a social media celebrity who believes his fame means his word doesn’t matter, the facts don’t matter, and that he can break and breach his contractual obligations without consequence,” the lawsuit reads.
MrBeast Burger’s haunted kitchen has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the superstar YouTuber
It comes after he sued Virtual Dining Concepts for allegedly selling undercooked meals that damaged his reputation. His suit included snippets of customer reviews to illustrate this dissatisfaction
“He’s mistaken.” The lawsuit goes on to claim that MrBeast did not endorse the company and made “untrue or misleading” statements that undermined the brand.
It quotes at least one now-deleted tweet from MrBeast in which he wrote “the company I worked with won’t let me quit even though it’s terrible for my brand.. Young beast signed a bad deal.”
In another tweet, he said, “If I had the option to close it, unfortunately I would have done so a long time ago. Sometimes when you’re (sic) young you sign a s*** deal.’
“Donaldson’s baseless and unlawful contempt had its intended effect: MrBeast Burger’s reputation was materially damaged, if not destroyed, customers abandoned the brand, Plaintiffs’ hard-won relationships with vendors, partners, and suppliers were shattered, causing damages to Plaintiffs that, according to the evidence and Donaldson’s own statements regarding the value of MrBeast Burger are in the nine-figure range,” the lawsuit added.
It comes after MrBeast filed his own lawsuit against Virtual Dining Concepts, demanding that MrBeast Burgers shut down.
The Florida-based company partnered with the 25-year-old to launch the food-based venture in 2020, using storefronts from other existing restaurants to prepare the sandwiches.
Known as “ghost kitchens,” the concept was initially a hit – with MrBeast successfully rising to fame so that a crowd of more than 10,000 lined up for the opening of the first MrBeast Burger location in the American Dream. mall in New Jersey.
It also sold over a million burgers before Donaldson even had a chance to advertise it.
But his lawsuit alleges that Virtual Dining Concepts has since repeatedly damaged the YouTuber’s reputation by failing to guarantee the quality of the burgers — sometimes even serving raw food. It also claims that Donaldson received another “dime” from the company.
The suit included snippets of customer reviews to illustrate this dissatisfaction — about a month after MrBeast abruptly ended the experiment last month, citing “quality issues” with participating haunted kitchens.
“Customers called the burgers ‘disgusting,’ ‘repulsive,’ and ‘inedible,’” reads part of the federal filing, which alleges Virtual Dining’s alleged failure to monitor its haunted kitchens has irrevocably damaged the YouTuber’s reputation .
It adds that those hapless patrons have issued complaints such as “it’s sad that MrBeast would put his name on this,” and that they’d “never had anything so nasty.”
Other cited criticisms of the roughly $10 burger included claims of “imprecise marketing,” “big name, bad food,” and “deeply disturbing for the high price.”
One simply called the food “the worst burger I’ve ever had.”
Tapping into the chorus of public opinion, the complaint seeks to allow MrBeast to terminate its agreement with Virtual Dining Concepts (VDC) effective immediately, shutting down one of the largest virtual brands in the US.
MrBeast initially managed to successfully parry his fame so that a crowd of over 10,000 lined up for the opening of the first MrBeast Burger location at the American Dream mall in New Jersey
It cites how more than half of the more than 1,000 virtual MrBeast Burger restaurants “have less than two (out of five) stars,” Donaldson’s lawyers wrote, “well below the average four-star rating on the platform (Yelp ) .’
MrBeast has yet to publicly comment on the suit, but has done so through a spokesperson.
The company, whose past celebrity partnerships include Mariah Carey and Jersey Shore star Pauly D, said: “In reality, Mr. Donaldson’s fame has grown exponentially over the life of the MrBeast Burger brand, in part because of the MrBeast Burger brand.” yourself.’
It adds that contrary to MrBeast’s claims, “VDC takes quality and customer reviews very seriously” and “consistently strives to improve quality and customer satisfaction.”
“All negative customer reviews reflect the experience and opinion of a very small minority of MrBeast Burger customers,” wrote New York attorneys Richard A. Edlin and Mathew S. Rosengart, adding “VDC looks forward to winning the case in court.’
“In the meantime, it’s business as usual for MrBeast Burger and VDC,” added the statement from the roughly 1,000 participating restaurants nationwide.
“We had hoped that Mr. Donaldson would act honorably. Instead, having put his greed above his word and the truth, he will have to face the consequences in court when VDC files a claim against him.”
Last July, about two years into the venture, Donaldson bragged about the astounding amount of money the burger chain has made in the US to date, then tapped $100 million.
The company started with 300 locations in the US, but quickly expanded to 1,000 locations in North America.
In January, cash receipts from the operation totaled $150,000,000 in revenue.
However, after factoring in the 30 percent fee paid to actual locations, as well as the cost of ingredients, packaging, shipping, storage, and other expenses, the net profit was somewhere around $30,000,000 – an amount that would must be split between MrBeast and Virtual Dining Concepts.
It is not clear how much the operation raised in the six months that followed. The suit is currently underway.