Byron Allen loses $100M fraud lawsuit against McDonald’s over ad spending: ‘Smear campaign’

McDonald’s has defeated Byron Allen’s $100 million lawsuit, in which he accused the fast-food giant of lying when it pledged to increase national ad spend with black-owned outlets.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Sunday dismissed the lawsuit filed by the media exec’s Allen Media.

Allen’s suit hinged on a specific interpretation of claims McDonald’s made in a 2021 press release outlining its promises to increase its spending with black-owned businesses overall. 

But the judge ruled that Allen’s legal materials had not shown a likelihood of proving its allegations in court.

In a statement, McDonald’s said that the court’s dismissal of the case proves that “this was just another frivolous lawsuit brought by Byron Allen as part of his smear campaign against” the company.

Allen Media Group plans to appeal the decision. 

The comedian-turned-media mogul has been in the news in recent months for making a bid to buy Shari Redstone’s Paramount Global, as well as BET Media Group, which is also owned by the media giant.

Allen made a run for BET, but which has yet to be sold.

In December, a group of investors were in talks to acquire the property, but a sale has not yet materialized. More recently, Allen submitted a $14 billion buyout bid for Redstone’s Paramount, but there have been questions about the exec’s funding.

An independent group is currently reviewing offers and strategic alternatives for the property, which includes Paramount Pictures, MTV and CBS.

Allen Media, which owns the Weather Channel, has a separate $10 billion lawsuit pending against McDonald’s in federal court, which alleges that the chain discriminates through racial stereotyping in its advertising practices, thus violating civil rights laws.