World

IT outage takes down McDonald's outlets around world

By AAP Newswire

Mar 15, 2024

McDonald's Japan — A technical disruption has impacted many of McDonald's almost 3000 shops across Japan. -AP

McDonald's says a technology outage has disrupted operations at many of its outlets worldwide, including in Japan and Australia, but has ruled out the possibility of a cybersecurity incident.

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

Many McDonald's stores in Japan stopped taking in-person and mobile customer orders on Friday because of the system disruption, a spokesperson at McDonald's Holdings Company Japan said, adding that the company was working to restore operations.

"We are aware of a technology outage which impacted our restaurants; the issue is now being resolved," McDonald's said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, a McDonald's Australia spokesperson confirmed that the outage was impacting its restaurants nationwide.

The outage seemed to have impacted customers in Hong Kong, New Zealand and the UK as well, with people taking to social media to complain about disruptions at stores.

The fast food chain has about 245 outlets in Hong Kong and more than 160 stores in New Zealand.

There are about 40,000 McDonald's restaurants worldwide, with more than 14,000 stores in the United States.Â

It also operates almost 3000 stores across Japan and roughly 1000 in Australia, its websites for the regions show.

The New York Times said McDonald's Hong Kong was experiencing a "computer system failure", stating that the mobile ordering and self-ordering kiosks were not functioning.