By Friday a total of 12 McDonald’s MCD, -0.47% restaurants had been shut down by Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s state consumer regulator, over alleged sanitary violations--up from eight on Thursday--and an unprecedented 100 outlets were being inspected, up from several last week, the company said in a statement Friday.
“We are studying the essence of claims laid to us to determine the actions necessary to open the restaurants for our customers as soon as possible,” McDonald’s said.
The closure of some of those restaurants, including Russia’s first iconic McDonald’s restaurant that opened in Pushkin Square in 1990 (see image above), was upheld by Russian courts Wednesday.
Over the past two days Rospotrebnadzor added restaurants in Serpukhov near Moscow, Krasnodar in southern Russia and Sochi, also in the south of the country, the company said.
McDonald's Statement (Aug 29, 2014)
Based on claims from a federal consumer agency, currently 12 McDonald's restaurants in Moscow, Moscow region, Stavropol, Yekaterinburg, Sochi and Krasnodar are temporarily closed.We are closely studying the content of the agency documents to determine what should be done to re-open the restaurants as soon as possible.
Of the 12 McDonald's restaurants currently closed in Russia, the court has made a decision that four of these - three in Moscow and one in Yekaterinburg - should remain temporarily closed for a further period. We do not agree with the court's decision and will appeal against it in accordance with the procedures established by the law.
Our main priority is to serve our customers with top quality menu items.
We will continue taking care of our employees and will do our best to continue the success of McDonald's business in Russia.
-McDonald’s Russia
