Why Is MrBeast Suing The 'MrBeast Burger' Makers? The 'Virtual Dining Concepts' Lawsuit Explained
It's not every day you see an established celebrity sue his own burgers, but that's more or less what's happening in the MrBeast Burger lawsuit. Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson took the unusual step to sue Virtual Dining Concepts, the company he'd partnered with to make the now infamous "MrBeast Burger," earlier this week. The lawsuit combines several fascinating, only-in-the-2020s factors, and we're here to walk you through the modern set of circumstances that led MrBeast to court.
Why Is MrBeast Suing Virtual Dining Concepts?
MrBeast and Virtual Dining Concepts partnered in December of 2020, right in the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic, to create a delivery-only "restaurant" that would sell MrBeast-branded items, such as the MrBeast Burger.
Reviews of the burger at the time testified that it was "fine," if overpriced, likely what one would expect ordering a celebrity-branded burger. Some assumed, with some merit, that the burger was essentially the same thing one could get at a more traditional restaurant, like Ruby Tuesday. This is because Virtual Dining Concepts is a Ghost Kitchen business ‐ more on that later.
The "fine" standard of quality of MrBeast Burgers purportedly took a sharp dive over the following months, as by late 2022, reviewers were calling them "revolting" and "inedible." One particularly popular negative review came in October 2022 from a user on Reddit's /r/Wellthatsucks. They posted photos showing the MrBeast Burger they'd received was very raw.
Reviews like this piled up and started coming from more influential figures like Ethan Klein.
On July 31st, 2023, MrBeast decided enough is enough and filed a lawsuit against Virtual Dining Concepts, alleging they had willfully ignored complaints about quality control from customers and MrBeast himself in the interest of rapidly expanding their business and pitching it to other celebrities. He stated the poor quality of MrBeast Burgers had done irreparable damage to his brand and that he was receiving the brunt of the backlash for the "disgusting" burgers.
What Is A "Ghost Kitchen"?
One may assume that if a traditional restaurant were to produce food of "MrBeast Burger" quality, they would quickly go out of business due to a lack of customers and health department scrutiny. Virtual Dining Concepts can skirt those issues by virtue of it being a "Ghost Kitchen" business.
A "ghost kitchen" is a type of food vendor that uses the kitchens from other, more traditional restaurants to create delivery-only food. They were introduced during the pandemic, when demand for take-out was high. In theory, the ghost kitchen could help food vendors reach more customers while the brick-and-mortar restaurants offering their kitchens would receive some of the profit, but they've proven controversial ever since they hit the market.
Companies have been accused of running "ghost kitchens" like satantic mills, while some restaurants have been accused of essentially creating a "ghost kitchen" restaurant to sell their same food at a markup. Because of the legal grey areas surrounding the new venture, Ghost Kitchens have also been accused of skirting quality control, which may have led to the MrBeast Burger fiasco.
"MrBeast Burgers" was arguably the highest-profile example of a ghost kitchen establishment. In March of 2023, YouTuber Eddy Burback posted an investigation into Ghost Kitchens, using MrBeast Burger as a prime example of their issues and shortcomings. The video gained over 6.9 million views.
How Has Virtual Dining Concepts Responded?
Two days after MrBeast filed his lawsuit, Virtual Dining Concepts sent out a statement to media outlets defending itself against the YouTuber's charges. They claimed that MrBeast had attempted to bully the company into having more control over MrBeast Burgers, and when that didn't work, he resorted to a lawsuit. They claimed MrBeast was operating out of "greed" and called the lawsuit "meritless."
(Orlando, FL) August 1, 2023: Jimmy Donaldson a/k/a MrBeast, by and through Beast Investments, LLC, filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against affiliates Virtual Dining Concepts, LLC, Celebrity Virtual Dining, LLC and Virtual Concepts Holdings, Inc. (collectvely, “VDC”). Mr. Donaldson, Beast Investments, Virtual Dining Concepts and Celebrity Virtual Dining are partes to certain agreements underlying “MrBeast Burger,” a widely popular virtual dining restaurant brand. The complaint is riddled with false statements and inaccuracies and is a thinly-veiled attempt to distract from Mr. Donaldson’s and Beast Investments’ breaches of the agreements between the parties, including Mr. Donaldson’s recent false, disparaging statements regarding the MrBeast Burger brand and VDC.
To the detriment of approximately ten million happy MrBeast Burger customers, hundreds of restaurants, and their thousands of employees who make MrBeast Burger products daily, Mr. Donaldson recently attempted to negotiate a new deal to serve his own monetary interests. When VDC refused to accede to his bullying tactics to give up more of the company to him, he filed this ill-advised and meritless lawsuit seeking to undermine the MrBeast Burger brand and terminate his existing contractual obligations without cause. The alleged basis for Mr. Donaldson’s complaint is that his reputation has been “materially and irreparably” tarnished by the MrBeast Burger brand. In reality, Mr. Donaldson’s notoriety has grown exponentially over the life of the MrBeast Burger brand, in part because of the MrBeast Burger brand itself.
VDC takes quality and customer reviews very seriously. VDC consistently strives to improve quality and customer satisfaction, and any negative customer reviews reflect the experience and opinion of a very small minority of MrBeast Burger customers.3 VDC has retained the law firm of Greenberg Traurig to represent VDC’s interests in the pending dispute, represented by Richard A. Edlin and Mathew S. Rosengart, and VDC looks forward to being vindicated in court. In the meantime, it is business as usual for MrBeast Burger and VDC, and we look forward to serving many more happy customers. We extend our sincere appreciation to our customers, market partners, vendors and employees for all of their past, present and future support. VDC will continue to help the restaurant industry as we work to promptly resolve this unfortunate dispute. We had hoped Mr. Donaldson would act honorably. Instead, having elevated greed over his word and the truth, he will face the consequences in court when VDC files it claims against him.
The statement also said, "VDC consistently strives to improve quality and customer satisfaction, and any negative customer reviews reflect the experience and opinion of a very small minority of MrBeast Burger customers." However, several have pointed out that that doesn't seem accurate with the scores of images and reviews calling MrBeast Burgers raw and inedible.
On August 8th, Virtual Dining Concepts countersued MrBeast, alleging that his public lamentation of his deal with the company and his lawsuit have done irreparable harm to their brand. They seek damages of over $100 million.
For more information, check out the MrBeast Burgers lawsuit entry on Know Your Meme.
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