After her husband’s death, Carla von Hessen wanted to take over his McDonald’s branches – but the parent company had other plans. Since then, a quarrel has raged that takes increasingly absurd turns.
If you are good at one thing as a member of a German aristocratic family, it is probably: inheritance. So it is understandable that Princess Carla von Hessen, 48, felt alienated when she found out after the tragic accidental death of her husband Otto von Hessen († 55) that she should not inherit his four McDonald’s branches in Ingolstadt. The reason: the strict franchise concept of the fast food chain.
The restaurants are only leased by the franchisees and then run independently, but according to the strict guidelines of the parent company. After Otto von Hessen’s death, McDonald’s is said to have checked the widow’s suitability as the new operator, but rejected her as not sufficiently qualified. Instead, they wanted to reassign the restaurants. However, the group had not expected the tenacity of the 48-year-old.
Bizarre dispute over four McDonald’s branches
Princess Carla von Hessen sued the German headquarters of the burger empire in Munich. She lost in the first instance, but appealed. Since then, she has managed the four branches against the will of the parent company. McDonald’s tried its hand at damage control, setting up an escrow account to hold all of the store’s proceeds until the lawsuit was decided. Not acceptable to the princess as she urgently needs the money to keep the restaurants running. And so she had an unusual idea.
At Christmas 2022, she announced “digital fasting weeks” in the four branches: Suddenly, customers could only pay in cash here. Carla von Hessen played into the cards, which was probably simply impractical for the guests – because she kept the cash herself, it did not automatically go to the trust account. She then set up her own debit card terminals, which also transferred the income to her own accounts. As expected, the group took direct legal action against this.
Stage win for McDonald’s
The princess now lost out: in court in Munich, she was sentenced to use McDonald’s card terminals again. The money raised goes back to the escrow account. A stage victory for the fast food chain, but not yet a complete defeat for Carla von Hessen: whether she can officially remain the operator of the four branches will be decided this year in the appeals process.
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Source: Stern
