McDonald’s has a lot more power over its franchises than many other chains since they own the land under every single location and lease it to franchisees. McDonald’s itself is only tangentially in the restaurant business. Primarily they’re a corporate landlord, marketing company, and kitchen supply broker.

Although there’s a little back and forth because some of the larger franchisees get a lot of input on some of their internal committees. Like with the Taylor ice cream situation, one of the people involved runs one of the larger franchise organizations but also sits on their kitchen equipment committee. He allegedly violated his NDA with Kytch and gave Taylor one of the devices to analyze. Presumably he’s getting a cut of the Taylor-to-McDonald’s Corp kickback money.