The Era Of Broken McDonald's McFlurry Machines Might Actually Be Over

Have you ever showed up at McDonald's craving their iconic sweet treat, the McFlurry, only to be told that the machine is out of order? If you have, then you know how frustrating this experience can be — and if you haven't, then it probably sounds like a nightmare. Luckily, McFlurry lovers have nothing to worry about anymore because the company has found a long-term solution to the problem.

As it turns out, whenever the machine breaks down, McDonald's is unable to fix it because the copyright of the soft serve ice cream machines is owned by another company, Taylor. However, this is no longer an issue thanks to a recent court ruling.

As granted by the United States Copyright Office, restaurants now have the "right to repair" the machines, meaning that they will be able to bypass the digital locks connected to the machines and make the repairs. This is known as a "copyright exemption" and will go into effect immediately, beginning October 28, 2024.

The ruling is thanks to two companies, Public Knowledge and iFixit, who requested the exemption. Meredith Rose, the senior policy counsel at Public Knowledge, said in a statement, "There's nothing vanilla about this victory; an exemption for retail-level commercial food preparation equipment will spark a flurry of third-party repair activity and enable businesses to better serve their customers."

McDonald's is undeniably one of the businesses that will now be able to better serve their customers — even if it has been raising its prices lately. Now, when customers are craving a McFlurry, they won't have to check the third-party website, McBroken, which tracks which McDonald's locations have broken McFlurry machines — an indication of how big the problem came to be. Instead, McDonald's locations will be able to fix their own machines, meaning that there should be very few — if any — instances when a customer shows up to find that the McDonald's employees are unable to make them a McFlurry. Now, the company can focus on cleaning the McFlurry machines to keep the efficiency moving.