The publicized bidder for Paramount Global has been handed his lunch so to speak by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge in his $100 million lawsuit against McDonald’s for allegedly not keeping promises to dramatically increase advertising with Black-owned media companies.Facing discrimination claims, the home of the Big Mac in May 2021 unveiled a self-described “four-year plan” to pump up its national media spending with said Black-owned companies from 2% to 5%. Having put together a plan to help facilitate that spending, Allen’s Weather Group, LLC and Plaintiff Entertainment Studios Networks, Inc soon came to the conclusion that McDonald’s was only interested in press releases, not putting its money where its mouth was.Then Allen’s lawyer hit McDonald’s with a fraud suit and the legal filings started flying back and forth. Late last week, Judge Mel Red Recana decided McDonald’s motion to strike the initial complaint under the Golden State’s anti-SLAPP statute was applicable and that the company did not engage in a “false promise,” as the plaintiffs claim.
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