A $10 billion racial discrimination suit by media mogul Byron Allen against McDonald's will be allowed to go to trial, a federal judge in California ruled.
The lawsuit alleged that McDonald's violated federal and California civil rights laws by deeming Allen's networks ineligible for the "vast majority" of its advertising dollars, the New York Post reported Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Fernando M. Olguin, a Barack Obama appointee, found Allen's claims that the fast-food giant promoted "racial stereotyping" by not advertising with Black-owned media should be addressed by a jury.
Olguin dubbed the finding a "close call."
"At a minimum, this is the type of case where the 'trial court is permitted, in its discretion, to deny even a well-supported motion for summary judgment, if it believes the case will benefit from a full hearing,'" Olguin ruled in a 25-page order, according to the Post.
Allen is accusing McDonald's of relegating his Entertainment Studios Networks Inc. and Weather Group LLC, which owns the Weather Channel, to an "African American tier" with a separate, Black-focused ad agency with a significantly smaller ad budget, depriving them of tens of millions of dollars of annual revenue.
The lawsuit argued that despite annual pleas for Allen's media companies to be included in the fast food giant's general ad market, they remained in its Black-only market because Allen is Black, which Allen's parent company Entertainment Studios described as "blatant and pernicious discrimination."
"We have overwhelming evidence against McDonald's — who has been sued by its Black executives, Black franchisees, and their global head of security — for racial discrimination," Allen said in a statement to theGrio.
The McDonald's Corporation said the judge's decision simply meant that neither party met the high standard for dismissal at this stage of the proceedings, the Post reported.
"We are prepared to show that this case is utterly baseless," the company said. "McDonald's invested in media properties that aligned with the company's business strategy and, like any other rational business, declined to invest in those that had low ratings or failed to reach the company's target audiences."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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