McDonald’s has quietly brought to a close a long-running antitrust lawsuit filed by former workers who challenged the fast-food giant’s past use of so-called no-poach clauses in its franchise agreements.
Court filings show McDonald’s and the plaintiffs jointly asked a federal judge in Chicago on December 24 to dismiss the case with prejudice, formally ending nearly nine years of litigation. The dispute centered on franchise contract provisions that once barred franchise owners from hiring employees who had worked at another McDonald’s location within the previous six months.
The workers argued the restrictions unlawfully suppressed competition for labor by preventing employees from freely moving between McDonald’s franchises, in violation of federal antitrust law. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed in the dismissal notice.
The case has had a complex procedural history. In June 2022, U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso ruled in McDonald’s favor, granting judgment on the pleadings and finding the workers had failed to show the company exercised control over local labor markets.
That decision was later overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, which concluded the allegations were sufficient to move forward and said the district court had prematurely resolved what it described as “complex” antitrust questions.
The litigation then stalled while McDonald’s sought review by the U.S. Supreme Court. In March 2024, the high court declined to hear the case, sending it back to the trial court, where the parties continued to dispute how the litigation should proceed.
Rather than return to active litigation, the sides ultimately opted to end the case altogether through the joint dismissal.
The lawsuits were brought by former workers Leinani Deslandes and Stephanie Turner. McDonald’s has since eliminated no-poach provisions from its franchise agreements, a move it previously said was unrelated to the litigation.
The cases are Leinani Deslandes v. McDonald’s USA LLC et al., No. 1:17-cv-04857, and Stephanie Turner v. McDonald’s USA LLC et al., No. 1:19-cv-05524, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
