EU: McDonald’s faces antitrust attack as Unions complain

A group of McDonald’s critics urged the European Union to rein in alleged antitrust abuses by the world’s largest restaurant chain in a complaint just weeks after regulators added the company to a growing list of US firms facing a clampdown on tax loopholes.

The Big Mac-maker was accused by a coalition of Italian consumer organizations and European and US trade unions of abusing its market power to harm franchisees who run its burger restaurants as well as customers, workers and rivals.

“No company is more responsible for driving a global race to the bottom than the Golden Arches, which has pioneered and perfected a brand of cannibal capitalism,” said Scott Courtney, an official at the Service Employees International Union, which backs the antitrust complaint filed with the European Commission on Monday.

The accusation adds to an EU probe opened in December into suspicions the company unfairly exploited a pact with Luxembourg to avoid tax for more than half a decade. The trade unions helped throw McDonald’s in the spotlight by producing a report claimingit dodged more than 1 billion euros in taxes across Europe.

Full content: The Wall Street Journal

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