Pic: Instagram / MrBeast
Days after the popular YouTuber MrBeast sued the company that he partnered with for his MrBeast Burger brand, alleging that the poor quality of its products was harming his reputation, the restaurant brand filed a lawsuit of its own against the social media star.
Virtual Dining Concepts, which operates a number of celebrity ghost kitchens - brands that bear the face of public figures and offer delivery food produced in restaurants across the country - is suing MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, alleging breach of contract and interference with its business.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday in the Supreme Court of New York, claims Donaldson attempted to renegotiate his deal with the company to secure a larger stake for himself, and when that effort was unsuccessful, he began to disparage his own brand's food and his partner.
The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages, which the company estimates to be "in the nine-figure range."
"This case is about a social media celebrity who believes his fame means that his word does not matter, that the facts do not matter, and that he can renege and breach his contractual obligations without consequence," the lawsuit states. "He is mistaken."
A call to Donaldson's attorney was not immediately returned.
In the filing, Virtual Dining Concepts produced a number of tweets from Donaldson - some of which have been deleted - that it claims harmed the brand.
In those messages, Donaldson complained to his millions of followers about the partnership and said that he had signed a bad deal.
The company claimed that those messages were posted in retaliation after it rejected Donaldson's efforts to renegotiate their contract to his benefit. "Despite the fact that Plaintiffs put Donaldson into the food business, he decided to pressure them to sell all or a material portion of MrBeast Burger to him by using his massive online presence to sabotage the Brand and Plaintiffs' business," the lawsuit states.
In one later tweet included in the filing, Donaldson told followers he was "moving on" from MrBeast Burger. Though that tweet was subsequently deleted, the company noted that it generated headlines that remain. "As Donaldson had planned," the lawsuit states, "the damage was done."
Donaldson is one of the biggest stars on YouTube, where he posts videos of elaborate philanthropic stunts in which he gives away huge cash prizes and extravagant gifts. A pop-up event in 2020 to mark the launch of MrBeast Burger drew thousands of cars; Donaldson gave one fan a new vehicle after his was damaged in the melee.
In his lawsuit last week, Donaldson claimed that the burgers and fries being sold under his name were subpar, citing "thousands of negative reviews, articles, and comments from people who are deeply disappointed by the fact that MrBeast would put his name on this product."
But Virtual Dining Concepts said the online criticism represented only a small minority of customers. "There were some complaints about the burgers, as is customary for any burger restaurant, but those were relatively few in number compared to the overall number of burgers sold," the lawsuit against Donaldson states. "The reality is that the overwhelming majority of customers were highly satisfied, and the product was excellent."
The company pointed to Donaldson's growing popularity as evidence against his claim that his reputation was being damaged by the poor product.
The filing notes that Donaldson's management team itself has touted upticks in his YouTube metrics. "In short, Donaldson himself has refuted, if not eviscerated, his claim that his reputation had been 'tarnished' by Plaintiffs or the Brand, much less that it had been tarnished 'irreparably,'" its lawsuit states.
