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Who’s Suing MrBeast?

MrBeast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, staked his reputation on a ghost kitchen, and now they’re embroiled in lawsuits.

UPDATE on MR BEAST 8/6/2024, 3:48 PM EST: Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, made a huge leap to Amazon Prime this month with his Beast Games, a YouTube-ified version of The Squid Games. But with great budgets – and liabilities – comes greater scrutiny, and the word from Beast Games participants is that conditions were unsafe. According to these reports, poor food and medication were controlled by the crew, and elements of the production allegedly felt unfair.

Donaldson’s team blamed the CrowdStrike failures and a number of other issues, and future productions show no signs of slowing down. Follow here for updates as the story develops.

Photo of MrBeast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, at a Nickelodeon event. He is a white malein his mid twenties wearing a white button down shirt over a black tshirt.
  • MrBeast is one of the top YouTubers ever, with over 174 million subscribers just on his main channel.
  • During the pandemic, he partnered with Virtual Dining Concepts (VDC) to create MrBeast Burger.
  • They opened a limited number of brick-and-mortar stores but heavily relied on ghost kitchens, where an existing kitchen will also make and deliver food for a number of other menus.
  • Donaldson recently announced he is suing VDC for $10 million, complaining that the poor quality is damaging his brand.
  • VDC then countersued for $100 million, citing a breach of contract among other things.

What Went Wrong with MrBeast Burger?

In order to understand the mindset of Jimmy Donaldson, just know that he spent years analyzing why YouTube videos work, picking apart the editing and thumbnails to ensure his own videos were popular on YouTube. All he ever wanted was to be “the best YouTuber in the world,” he told Creators Colin & Samir in a nearly two-hour interview.

And now he is. At first glance, his videos are just elaborate pranks, but underneath all of the extreme challenges and giving money away, Donaldson maintains a high standard of quality control. His videos may not always be my cup of tea, but I can appreciate his work ethic and consistent output.

Ghost kitchens, on the other hand, are very hit-or-miss. I really suggest watching Eddy Burbach’s “The Deceptive World of Ghost Kitchens” if you want to learn more. Virtual Dining Concepts pairs with existing influencers to create a product, and essentially outsource all the preparation and delivery to whichever ghost kitchen wants it. Here is their interest form and what they promise to potential kitchens they pair with:

Notice the MrBeast Burger logo is still on this form page, and in fact still all over their website.

Why is MrBeast Suing?

I wasn’t surprised to hear that Donaldson was unhappy with MrBeast Burger and wanted to shut it down to focus on his other food product, Feastables. Donaldson is a perfectionist. He will spend thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on a video, only to scrap it if he can’t get it perfect.

I can imagine that hearing complaints from customers on how gross and disappointing his menu items were, as prepared and delivered by these ghost kitchens, is not something he can tolerate. Mashable reported that Donaldson posted on twitter/x that “Sadly when working with 2,000 restaurants I don’t own it’s impossible to guarantee the order quality.” This and other tweets referencing MrBeast Burger are now deleted.

Variety reported that MrBeast sued Virtual Dining Concepts for $10 million dollars, describing the products as “inedible” and “low-quality,” accusing his business partners of tarnishing his brand.

Most of the reviews found on this Yelp page were one-star.

Why is Virtual Dining Concepts Suing MrBeast?

The countersuit by VDC claims that MrBeast tarnished his own brand; after all, who wants to buy burgers when their namesake won’t endorse them? Then we get into a bit of a chicken and egg situation, where VDC claims Donaldson allegedly didn’t follow through on his publicity obligations, affecting sales. They also claimed that Donaldson only brought a lawsuit against them after he tried to renegotiate their contract, and they countersued for $100 million.

Now you know more than you probably ever wanted to about MrBeast Burger and ghost kitchens. The moral? Products promoted by influencers are not always to be trusted, and food delivery apps have more ghost kitchens than you think.

[UPDATE 5/6/2024] In early May, Donaldson separated from his manager for multiple years., Reed Duchscher of Night Media, after six years together. For those keeping count, that was when Donaldson was 18 years old. It is speculated this break results from Donaldson’s troubled entry into the food industry.

Photo/Image Credit: Cindy Marie Jenkins, Canva, Shutterstock, Virtual Dining Concepts, Yelp

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