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McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

corporate.mcdonalds.com

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Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#141

Post by roenxi »

jcranmer wrote: post #103
logifail wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Obviously they'd want to keep the trademark, otherwise they have no way to prevent those sold restaurants from "re-Arching" after the "de-Arching" :) If a country has gone sufficiently rogue to invade a neighbour, respect for property[0][1] - and by extension trademarks - appears to matter very little, at least for now? [0] https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/16/business/russia-aircraft-... [1] https://www.bbc.com/news…

Russia is party to several international treaties that allow it to be sued outside of Russian courts if it doesn't uphold intellectual property law, and if those suits do not go Russia's way, then it is now possible that Russian assets can be seized as compensation. Or, to oversimplify it, if Russia decides that anyone can use McDonald's trademark, then maybe Gazprom's pipelines won't be Russian anymore.

Hasn't the US already been seizing stuff somewhat randomly? I don't think there is a case that Russian yachts are contributing to the war effort, but there seems to be a push on to make off with them.

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#142

Post by johannes1234321 »

jcranmer wrote: post #103
logifail wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Obviously they'd want to keep the trademark, otherwise they have no way to prevent those sold restaurants from "re-Arching" after the "de-Arching" :) If a country has gone sufficiently rogue to invade a neighbour, respect for property[0][1] - and by extension trademarks - appears to matter very little, at least for now? [0] https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/16/business/russia-aircraft-... [1] https://www.bbc.com/news…

Russia is party to several international treaties that allow it to be sued outside of Russian courts if it doesn't uphold intellectual property law, and if those suits do not go Russia's way, then it is now possible that Russian assets can be seized as compensation. Or, to oversimplify it, if Russia decides that anyone can use McDonald's trademark, then maybe Gazprom's pipelines won't be Russian anymore.

> then maybe Gazprom's pipelines won't be Russian anymore.

Germany already took over control of Gazprom Germania, with tanks and pipelines within Germany. So that isn't much of a threat.

https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/DE/Fachthemen/Elektrizitaet... (PDF, German language)

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#143

Post by samwillis »

avakand wrote: post #119

It seems that McDonald's closed stores that operated directly under their control. As a result, only stores in westert part of Russia were closed (in Moscow, Saint-Petersburg). The stores in Siberia (i.e. Novosibirsk) and in Moscow airports continued operating as usual, as they are working under franchaising. Even the mobile app continued functioning. So not much is going to change, I think. Hell, McDonalds is even o…

I think the suggestion is that they are going to remove the branding rights from the franchise owners “de-Arching” them. So there will be no McDonalds branded restaurants in Russia.

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#144

Post by hans_castorp »

jcranmer wrote: post #103
logifail wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Obviously they'd want to keep the trademark, otherwise they have no way to prevent those sold restaurants from "re-Arching" after the "de-Arching" :) If a country has gone sufficiently rogue to invade a neighbour, respect for property[0][1] - and by extension trademarks - appears to matter very little, at least for now? [0] https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/16/business/russia-aircraft-... [1] https://www.bbc.com/news…

Russia is party to several international treaties that allow it to be sued outside of Russian courts if it doesn't uphold intellectual property law, and if those suits do not go Russia's way, then it is now possible that Russian assets can be seized as compensation. Or, to oversimplify it, if Russia decides that anyone can use McDonald's trademark, then maybe Gazprom's pipelines won't be Russian anymore.

> Russia is party to several international treaties

Russia (or more precisely Putin) obviously gives a sh* about international treaties. The invasion in Ukraine breaches more than just one such treaty.

So why would they care about intellectual property?

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#146

Post by octodog »

vondro wrote: post #29

Something that has been bugging me for some time (genuine question, please forgive me lack of geopolitics/economy understanding) is this: Supposing we want to hurt Russian economy - how are we hurting it by stopping selling them licenses/branding/machines to make and sell burgers and fries? Are we not ripping them off money if we sell to them? As in: we gain, they lose? I understand we don't want to sell advanced tec…

The basic premise in market economies is that if a transaction occurs it is beneficial for both the buyer and the seller. This makes intuitive sense if you think about it - nobody forces you to buy McDonald's, you do so because you think a Quarter Pounder is worth the price you pay.

Sanctions work by preventing this transaction from happening, which means both the buyer and the seller are worse off compared to when they are allowed to trade.

The key point here is that although both the buyer and the seller are worse off, one party may be disproportionately impacted. This is the case with the Russian sanctions, as Western companies can usually find other markets (although less lucrative) but Russia is now having serious trouble sourcing certain components.

McDonald's is likely doing this for image reasons or to appease stakeholders rather than doing it to punish Russia directly, but the outcome is that Russians are slightly worse off than before.

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#147

Post by LeifCarrotson »

vondro wrote: post #29

Something that has been bugging me for some time (genuine question, please forgive me lack of geopolitics/economy understanding) is this: Supposing we want to hurt Russian economy - how are we hurting it by stopping selling them licenses/branding/machines to make and sell burgers and fries? Are we not ripping them off money if we sell to them? As in: we gain, they lose? I understand we don't want to sell advanced tec…

The transaction can be mutually beneficial: We gain cash worth more to us than the licenses/branding/machines, they gain licenses/branding/machines worth more to them than the cash. For the classic example, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage#Ricardo'...

Cutting them off from the global economy does damage their economy. No, burgers aren't as important as banking or bullets, but it's something.

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#148

Post by baud147258 »

thorin wrote: post #49
whitepaint wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? They have such tasty food, I love it.

I don't understand why anyone would call it "good". Cheap and convenient maybe, appeals to kids, somewhere to stop on a long journey in the middle of the night. There are so many options that are tastier, more interesting and more nutritious. It's not even in the top 5 best burger franchises in my town. [apologies if you're joking, and even if you aren't you're still entitled to your opinion]

I'm not even it's still cheap where I live in France. But I agree that's convenient and there's not a lot of surprises in what you're getting

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#149

Post by AltruisticGapHN »

Wow thatt's pretty rough. Just recently I saw some old footage of when Russia opened to the West and all those 90's kids in Russia going to the first Mc Donalds opening there.

Then again McDonalds is a good example of a lot of things that are just plain wrong about western culture... so no loss for Russia I guess.

Re: McDonald’s to Exit from Russia

#150

Post by eropple »

_kbh_ wrote: post #111
lnxg33k1 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

How does countries joining a defensive alliance threaten Russia?. Maybe if Russia stopped invading all its neighbours and all the prior USSR states, these states would stop joining NATO. The only thing NATO stops is Russian imperialism.

It helps when you realize that to the online segment, imperialism is definitionally something the United States does.
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