Plaintiff Kelly Killeen brought a class action complaint against Defendants McDonald’s Corporation and Salabad LLC, a Chicago-area franchisee, for claims under the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.  Plaintiff alleged that Defendants marketed their Extra Value Meals as a value, communicating that the cost of an Extra Value Meal was less than the aggregate cost of its individual components purchased separately. Plaintiff further alleged that she was able to purchase the individual components of a particular Extra Value Meal for less than the purchase price of the Extra Value Meal. 

In dismissing Plaintiff’s complaint, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois held that Illinois law is clear that where other information is available to dispel an allegedly misleading claim, there is no possibility for deception.  The Court wrote, a “straightforward, price-to-price comparison based on information available at the point of purchase would unequivocally dispel any misleading inference that could be drawn from the name ‘Extra Value Meal.‘“   Because Plaintiff could have done the math to determine whether the Extra Value Meal was really a value, Defendants’ marketing of the Extra Value Meal was not misleading.