[McDonald's Happy Meal Controversy] Early Termination Due to Rampant Reselling... Criticism Mounts Against Unethical Behavior—Has the Original Spirit Been Lost?

1. In the Summer of 2025, "A Small Reward" Became the Spark of Controversy

Originally, the Happy Meal was a small reward meant to support "a fun dining experience for children and families," serving as a catalyst for parent-child conversations and play. However, in the summer of 2025, a series of events shook this "origin" to its core. The demand for toys and cards linked to popular content surged for resale, leading to side effects such as hoarding, food waste, neighborhood troubles, and increased burden on crew members. Japan McDonald's officially apologized on August 11 and announced measures to strengthen purchase limits and collaboration with flea market operators.McDonald's

2. What Happened—A Brief Timeline

• May 16～: "Chiikawa/Minecraft" collaboration sales begin. Popularity heats up.McDonald's

• May 24 Announcement: Sales exceeded expectations, leading many stores to end sales early. The third installment was canceled (replaced with books, etc.). A precedent for "early termination" was set.Gourmet Watch

• August 4 Announcement: Details of the "Pokemon" collaboration were released. For three days from August 9 to 11, a purchase limit of 5 sets per person and a limited number of cards were specified.McDonald's

• August 7: Announced a joint effort with Mercari to raise awareness and address violations in listings.McDonald'sMercari News

• August 9-11: "Pokemon Cards" distribution. Many stores ran out of stock from the first day, and high-priced resales were confirmed on platforms like Mercari.Bloomberg.com

• August 11: Official apology and announcement of measures to prevent recurrence, including stricter purchase limits, restrictions on mobile orders, refusal of purchases by rule violators, and app membership cancellations.McDonald's

• August 21: The Consumer Affairs Agency expressed "regret" over the occurrence of food waste and requested improvements in sales methods. The director's press conference also mentioned the effectiveness of resale countermeasures.Asahi ShimbunMinistry of the Environment

• August 26: The campaign for "One Piece Cards" scheduled to start on August 29 was postponed. The impact extended to the next installment.McDonald'sITmediaTBS NEWS DIG

3. What Happened on the Ground—Crowding, Hoarding, Food Waste

The characteristic of this event was the overlap of "scarcity of limited items × short-term concentration × widespread diffusion." From the moment of release, early morning queues and "ladder purchases" occurred, and actions such as removing only the cards and leaving the food to be discarded became visible. The company initially set a 5-set limit and issued warnings, and announced a collaboration with flea markets, but the purchasing motive (resale profit) and scarcity outweighed the effectiveness of the restrictions.McDonald's+1Bloomberg.com

4. Corporate Response—What Did "Rule Reinforcement" Change?

The statement on August 11 included (1) stricter sales quantity limits, (2) temporary restrictions on mobile orders and delivery, (3) refusal of purchases for rule-ignoring bulk buying and intimidating behavior, and even (4) the possibility of app membership cancellation. These measures went beyond the traditional "request-based" approach to deterrence. At the same time, a stance of continuing discussions with flea market operators for effective measures was also shown.McDonald's
On the other hand, the postponement of the next campaign in late August can be seen as a decision prioritizing the stabilization of operations and the recovery of social trust.McDonald's

5. Regulatory Perspective—"Food Waste is Regrettable," Request for Sales Design Review

On the 21st, the Consumer Affairs Agency expressed "deep regret" over the situation where food was discarded without being eaten and requested sales methods that do not lead to food waste. In the director's press conference, it was suggested that there might be limits to individual companies' measures, and there is still room for consideration regarding the necessity and effectiveness of legal regulations.Asahi ShimbunMinistry of the Environment

6. Is Reselling "Illegal"?—Between Law and Reality

In conclusion, reselling itself is not immediately illegal. However, if done repeatedly and continuously for profit, a license under the Antique Dealings Act is required, and depending on the item, it may be subject to restrictions under individual laws such as the Act on Prohibition of Unauthorized Resale of Tickets. Furthermore, if a company sells under the condition of "no resale" and the purchase was made with an obviously false intention, there is theoretically room to charge fraud, but proving it is challenging in reality.Ishin Comprehensive Law OfficeAsahi Shimbun

In other words, there is a wide area of "not illegal but not permissible," and the realistic response is to deter through three layers: platform regulations, company sales conditions, and social criticism.

7. The Role of Flea Market Platforms—The Limits of "Preemptive Collaboration"

McDonald's collaborated with Mercari from before the release to raise awareness and address rights infringement. Despite this, high-priced resales appeared from the first day of release, with transactions involving hundreds of packs confirmed. Platforms can play a certain role through regulations, search exposure, and deletion operations, but to completely ban pure secondary distribution based on scarcity, legal and social discussions are needed. McDonald'sMercari NewsBloomberg.com

8. Where Was the "Origin"—Children, Families, Learning

The philosophy of the Happy Meal is to connect play that nurtures children's interest and imagination with family meals. The toy design, in collaboration with developmental support experts, is intended for multifaceted learning such as finger movements, spatial recognition, and storytelling imagination. Leveraging the power of popular IPs is not necessarily bad. However, when "scarcity" and "resale profit" take center stage, the "origin" of food experience and learning can easily be overshadowed.McDonald's

9. What Fueled the "Controversy"?

1. Short-term concentrated limited distribution (3 days, limited quantity), 2) highly scarce collaborative IP, 3) spread on social media, 4) concentration during peak family customer hours, 5) thickness of the resale market—these factors acted simultaneously. Although there were prior purchase limits and warnings, they were insufficient to level out the peak in demand. As a result, (a) early stock depletion, (b) queues and crowding, (c) food abandonment and waste, (d) burden on crew and neighbors, and (e) a sense of unfairness for children unable to obtain the items, all overlapped.McDonald'sBloomberg.com##HTML_TAG_