Restaurant Brands International

public fast-food franchisor

Restaurant Brands International

Industry Food

A public quick-service restaurant holding company behind Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, and Firehouse Subs. RBI offers convenient low-friction meals, but franchise extraction, meat-heavy menus, app and loyalty data, youth/family brand power, and private-equity-style brand consolidation keep it low.

Why this matters: RBI is the parent company consumers are usually comparing when they choose Burger King, Popeyes, Tim Hortons, or Firehouse Subs.

Letter grade F Malignant Medium confidence (AI) Rubric gcd-rubric-v1

Final Score -16* F - Malignant

* Tentative scaffolding score. Not human-checked or final.

Base Material12
Bonus+0
Cap35Ownership <= 2 and Governance <= 2
After Cap12
Penalties-28
G
Private Government badge

Restaurant Brands International receives the Private Government badge because it combines large-scale private rule-setting over customers, workers, users, members, or counterparties with OpenLobby-documented lobbying of about $2.1M on public policy issues.

Evidence: [14]

!Not Verified
Represent this organization?

Request verification to have the evidence record checked against primary materials and organization-supplied documents. Verification does not buy a higher score; scores change only when review finds factual errors, omissions, or miscalibration.

Request verification

Evaluation Overview

F - Malignant

The score turns mainly on Extraction, with the largest penalty coming from Policy Capture.

Strengths

  • Extraction2/10
  • Market Conduct2/5
  • Product Integrity2/5

Penalties

  • Policy Capture-7
  • High-Carbon Products-5
  • Ecological Harm-3
  • Toxic Products-3

Evidence state

  • ConfidenceMedium confidence (AI)
  • ThoroughnessDeveloped (AI)
  • Linked claims14
  • Direct axis claims13
  • Coverage13/19

Scoring Axes

Axis Score Why this score
Ownership
?
Control rights: shareholder-dominated at 0, worker cooperative control at 10.
1 / 10

Restaurant Brands International is controlled by owners, shareholders, family control, or private capital rather than by restaurant workers, customers, franchise workers, or affected communities.

Linked evidence
  • Restaurant Brands International is controlled by owners, shareholders, family control, or private capital rather than by restaurant workers, customers, franchise workers, or affected communities. [1]
Governance
?
Binding decision authority: centralized control at 0, democratic stakeholder control at 10.
1 / 10

Restaurant Brands International sells convenient restaurant meals through Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs, Whopper; the product has practical access value, but much of the…

Linked evidence
  • context Restaurant Brands International sells convenient restaurant meals through Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs, Whopper; the product has practical access value, but much of the menu is built around fast, branded, meat-heavy, fried, sugary, or highly processed food rather than ordinary nourishment. [2]
  • context Restaurant Brands International is controlled by owners, shareholders, family control, or private capital rather than by restaurant workers, customers, franchise workers, or affected communities. [1]
  • context Restaurant Brands International uses brand scale, franchising, location strategy, promotions, loyalty systems, and menu engineering to shape restaurant choice beyond simple food quality. [3]
Extraction
?
Surplus allocation, wage share, CEO pay ratio, margins, and structured extraction judgment.
2 / 10

Restaurant Brands International sells convenient restaurant meals through Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs, Whopper; the product has practical access value, but much of the…

Linked evidence
  • context Restaurant Brands International sells convenient restaurant meals through Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs, Whopper; the product has practical access value, but much of the menu is built around fast, branded, meat-heavy, fried, sugary, or highly processed food rather than ordinary nourishment. [2]
  • context Restaurant Brands International is controlled by owners, shareholders, family control, or private capital rather than by restaurant workers, customers, franchise workers, or affected communities. [1]
  • context Restaurant Brands International uses brand scale, franchising, location strategy, promotions, loyalty systems, and menu engineering to shape restaurant choice beyond simple food quality. [3]
Labor Sovereignty
?
Worker power: coercive conditions at 0, co-determination or ownership at 7. Employee dissatisfaction matters only when source-backed evidence shows concrete limits on worker agency, such as coercive scheduling, retaliation, wage theft, harassment, unsafe conditions, suppression of worker voice, or extreme turnover.
1 / 7

Restaurant Brands International sells convenient restaurant meals through Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs, Whopper; the product has practical access value, but much of the…

Linked evidence
  • context Restaurant Brands International sells convenient restaurant meals through Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs, Whopper; the product has practical access value, but much of the menu is built around fast, branded, meat-heavy, fried, sugary, or highly processed food rather than ordinary nourishment. [2]
  • context Restaurant Brands International is controlled by owners, shareholders, family control, or private capital rather than by restaurant workers, customers, franchise workers, or affected communities. [1]
  • context Restaurant Brands International uses brand scale, franchising, location strategy, promotions, loyalty systems, and menu engineering to shape restaurant choice beyond simple food quality. [3]
Solidarity with the Unemployed
?
Treatment of exits and nonworkers, including severance, redeployment, and non-competes.
1 / 7

Restaurant Brands International sells convenient restaurant meals through Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs, Whopper; the product has practical access value, but much of the…

Linked evidence
  • context Restaurant Brands International sells convenient restaurant meals through Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs, Whopper; the product has practical access value, but much of the menu is built around fast, branded, meat-heavy, fried, sugary, or highly processed food rather than ordinary nourishment. [2]
  • context Restaurant Brands International is controlled by owners, shareholders, family control, or private capital rather than by restaurant workers, customers, franchise workers, or affected communities. [1]
  • context Restaurant Brands International uses brand scale, franchising, location strategy, promotions, loyalty systems, and menu engineering to shape restaurant choice beyond simple food quality. [3]
Loss-Bearing Fidelity
?
Willingness to absorb costs to preserve values, workers, users, and public obligations.
1 / 7

Restaurant Brands International sells convenient restaurant meals through Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs, Whopper; the product has practical access value, but much of the…

Linked evidence
  • context Restaurant Brands International sells convenient restaurant meals through Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs, Whopper; the product has practical access value, but much of the menu is built around fast, branded, meat-heavy, fried, sugary, or highly processed food rather than ordinary nourishment. [2]
  • context Restaurant Brands International is controlled by owners, shareholders, family control, or private capital rather than by restaurant workers, customers, franchise workers, or affected communities. [1]
  • context Restaurant Brands International uses brand scale, franchising, location strategy, promotions, loyalty systems, and menu engineering to shape restaurant choice beyond simple food quality. [3]
Market Conduct
?
Pricing fairness, switching costs, lock-in, and rent extraction.
2 / 5

Restaurant Brands International uses brand scale, franchising, location strategy, promotions, loyalty systems, and menu engineering to shape restaurant choice beyond simple food quality.

Linked evidence
  • Restaurant Brands International uses brand scale, franchising, location strategy, promotions, loyalty systems, and menu engineering to shape restaurant choice beyond simple food quality. [3]
Product Integrity
?
Preservation of quality rather than degradation for monetization.
2 / 5

Restaurant Brands International sells convenient restaurant meals through Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs, Whopper; the product has practical access value, but much of the…

Linked evidence
  • Restaurant Brands International sells convenient restaurant meals through Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs, Whopper; the product has practical access value, but much of the menu is built around fast, branded, meat-heavy, fried, sugary, or highly processed food rather than ordinary nourishment. [2]
Scale Integrity
?
Whether growth improves or degrades fairness and accountability.
1 / 5

Restaurant Brands International sells convenient restaurant meals through Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs, Whopper; the product has practical access value, but much of the…

Linked evidence
  • context Restaurant Brands International sells convenient restaurant meals through Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs, Whopper; the product has practical access value, but much of the menu is built around fast, branded, meat-heavy, fried, sugary, or highly processed food rather than ordinary nourishment. [2]
  • context Restaurant Brands International is controlled by owners, shareholders, family control, or private capital rather than by restaurant workers, customers, franchise workers, or affected communities. [1]
  • context Restaurant Brands International uses brand scale, franchising, location strategy, promotions, loyalty systems, and menu engineering to shape restaurant choice beyond simple food quality. [3]

Penalties

Penalty Applied Why this penalty
Ecological Harm
?
Footprint, trajectory, irreversibility, culpability, and scale, including whether ecological harm is central to the model and continued after credible notice. Range: -30 to 0.
-3

Restaurant Brands International has environmental burden from meat, dairy, poultry, packaging, energy, waste, delivery, logistics, and restaurant expansion.

Linked evidence
  • Restaurant Brands International has environmental burden from meat, dairy, poultry, packaging, energy, waste, delivery, logistics, and restaurant expansion. [4]
Policy Capture
?
Private-interest attempts to bend law, regulation, subsidies, taxes, enforcement, trade, labor, safety, competition, environmental, healthcare, housing, surveillance, civil-liberties, or consumer policy against workers, customers, citizens, affected communities, or ecological life. Public-interest advocacy is not penalized merely because it is lobbying. Range: -15 to 0.
-7

OpenLobby records RESTAURANT BRANDS internet policyERNATIONAL INC (RBI) lobbying on tax, government issues, small-business policy, labor with about $2.1M in spending across 28 filings; the…

Linked evidence
  • OpenLobby records RESTAURANT BRANDS internet policyERNATIONAL INC (RBI) lobbying on tax, government issues, small-business policy, labor with about $2.1M in spending across 28 filings; the reviewed filings document private institutional lobbying over public rules rather than a public-interest advocacy role. [12]
High-Carbon Products
?
Core products, services, financing, or supply chains that materially depend on fossil-fuel combustion, high-emissions transport, industrial animal agriculture, meat, dairy, or other unusually carbon-intensive activity. This is scored separately from general ecological harm so ordinary consumers can see carbon-intensive product exposure directly. Range: -10 to 0.
-5

Meat-heavy restaurant and franchise models create material high-carbon exposure through ordinary customer purchases.

Linked evidence
  • Restaurant Brands International has meat-centered restaurant model high-carbon product exposure based on its listed business model and current profile description: A public quick-service restaurant holding company behind Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, and Firehouse Subs. RBI offers convenient low-friction meals, but franchise extraction, meat-heavy menus, app and loyalty data,… [13]
Toxic Products
?
Current sale of products whose ordinary use, exposure, ingredients, residues, packaging, or formulation creates toxic, addictive, or consumer-safety risk. Food products receive at least light scrutiny for artificial colors, artificial flavors, petro-derived additives, pesticide residues, contaminants, endocrine-disrupting packaging, and ultra-processed formulation. Ordinary adult nightlife or alcohol service is not penalized by itself without evidence of predatory marketing, youth targeting, addiction-extractive design, or unusual product-safety misconduct. Range: -5 to 0.
-3

Restaurant Brands International sells food where salt, sugar, saturated fat, fried preparation, processed ingredients, alcohol exposure, or portion design can become materially harmful when normalized as routine eating.

Linked evidence
  • Restaurant Brands International sells food where salt, sugar, saturated fat, fried preparation, processed ingredients, alcohol exposure, or portion design can become materially harmful when normalized as routine eating. [5]
Youth Capture
?
Manipulative youth-directed marketing, youth-data or attention monetization, collectible/add-on traps, parasocial or identity capture, surprise mechanics, or treating young people as lower-disclosure consumers. Making useful toys or welcoming children is not itself penalized. Range: -5 to 0.
-2

Restaurant Brands International reaches children, teens, families, or young adults through value meals, snacks, desserts, mascots, sports, breakfast, late-night, app rewards, or youth-coded brand culture.

Linked evidence
  • Restaurant Brands International reaches children, teens, families, or young adults through value meals, snacks, desserts, mascots, sports, breakfast, late-night, app rewards, or youth-coded brand culture. [6]
Subscription Capture
?
Manipulative recurring-payment, automatic-renewal, cancellation-friction, bundling, trial-conversion, or refund designs that profit from inertia or confusion. Range: -5 to 0.
-1

Restaurant Brands International uses apps, digital ordering, points, rewards, promotions, stored accounts, or habitual repeat-purchase loops that increase inertia beyond a single meal decision.

Linked evidence
  • Restaurant Brands International uses apps, digital ordering, points, rewards, promotions, stored accounts, or habitual repeat-purchase loops that increase inertia beyond a single meal decision. [7]
Accountability Opacity
?
Material opacity, reputation laundering, or hidden accountability structures that prevent public accountability. Range: -2 to 0.
-2

Restaurant Brands International publishes some menu and nutrition information, but the real tradeoffs in ingredients, labor, franchising, animal supply, pricing, and digital data are hard for ordinary diners to compare at purchase time.

Linked evidence
  • Restaurant Brands International publishes some menu and nutrition information, but the real tradeoffs in ingredients, labor, franchising, animal supply, pricing, and digital data are hard for ordinary diners to compare at purchase time. [8]
Identity Capture
?
Customer pressure, employee pressure, and pervasive identity saturation. Range: -3 to 0.
-2

Restaurant Brands International turns food into brand identity, fandom, lifestyle, family ritual, sports/snacking culture, faith-coded loyalty, or casual-dining belonging beyond plain nourishment.

Linked evidence
  • Restaurant Brands International turns food into brand identity, fandom, lifestyle, family ritual, sports/snacking culture, faith-coded loyalty, or casual-dining belonging beyond plain nourishment. [9]
Surveillance Capture
?
Invasive surveillance, unreasonably non-optional tracking, facial recognition, biometric identification, or AI behavior scanning of customers, workers, bystanders, or the public. Range: -5 to 0.
-2

Restaurant Brands International privacy materials or digital ordering systems show customer data collection through apps, websites, loyalty programs, payments, delivery, Wi-Fi, or advertising technology.

Linked evidence
  • Restaurant Brands International privacy materials or digital ordering systems show customer data collection through apps, websites, loyalty programs, payments, delivery, Wi-Fi, or advertising technology. [10]
Ideological Disavowal
?
Concealed ideology presented as neutrality, expertise, professional necessity, public-service administration, market inevitability, or non-ideological common sense while exercising power. Range: -3 to 0.
-1

Restaurant Brands International presents franchised restaurant expansion as ordinary convenience and hospitality while underplaying the institutional power embedded in labor structure, menu engineering, animal supply, and data capture.

Linked evidence
  • Restaurant Brands International presents franchised restaurant expansion as ordinary convenience and hospitality while underplaying the institutional power embedded in labor structure, menu engineering, animal supply, and data capture. [11]

Bonus Credits

No bonus credits applied in this version.

Confidence Basis

Confidence Basis

Confidence is computed from the evidence trail and review state, not typed into the profile by hand.

Medium 70/100

13 verified linked claims 13 direct axis claims 0 disputed claims 13/19 components covered

This confidence label measures the source-backed evidence trail. AI-scaffolded scores remain tentative until human review.

Claim confidence 14/20

13 verified linked claims

Source quality 12/18

Best source per verified claim, weighted by institutional reliability

Direct axis-specific claims 9/18

13 direct claims across 19 active components

Dispute load 12/12

0 disputed claims on this entity

Recency 10/10

Newest accepted timestamp: May 13, 2026

Reviewer status 7/12

Human-reviewed components score higher than AI scaffolding

Component coverage 7/10

13/19 evidence-bearing components have direct support

Evidence State

Evidence State

Profile stateAI draft / human-pending
VerificationUnverified
ConfidenceMedium confidence (AI)
ThoroughnessDeveloped (AI)
Correction routeUse “Challenge this rating” for factual errors, missing counterevidence, source problems, or calculation mistakes.
Company responseCompany representatives can submit source-backed corrections; payment never changes scores or reviewer authority.

Claims and Sources

Claims are the evidence record. Each claim needs a source link, axis category, status, confidence level, and timestamp before it can support a score.

* Tentative scaffolding score. Not human-checked or final.
1Restaurant Brands International is controlled by owners, shareholders, family control, or private capital rather than by restaurant workers, customers, franchise workers, or affected communities.

Ownership Verified Medium confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

2Restaurant Brands International sells convenient restaurant meals through Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs, Whopper; the product has practical access value, but much of the menu is built around fast, branded, meat-heavy, fried, sugary, or highly processed food rather than ordinary nourishment.

Product Integrity Verified Medium confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

3Restaurant Brands International uses brand scale, franchising, location strategy, promotions, loyalty systems, and menu engineering to shape restaurant choice beyond simple food quality.

Market Conduct Verified Medium confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

4Restaurant Brands International has environmental burden from meat, dairy, poultry, packaging, energy, waste, delivery, logistics, and restaurant expansion.

Ecological Harm Verified Medium confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

5Restaurant Brands International sells food where salt, sugar, saturated fat, fried preparation, processed ingredients, alcohol exposure, or portion design can become materially harmful when normalized as routine eating.

Toxic Products Verified Medium confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

6Restaurant Brands International reaches children, teens, families, or young adults through value meals, snacks, desserts, mascots, sports, breakfast, late-night, app rewards, or youth-coded brand culture.

Youth Capture Verified Medium confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

7Restaurant Brands International uses apps, digital ordering, points, rewards, promotions, stored accounts, or habitual repeat-purchase loops that increase inertia beyond a single meal decision.

Subscription Capture Verified Medium confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

8Restaurant Brands International publishes some menu and nutrition information, but the real tradeoffs in ingredients, labor, franchising, animal supply, pricing, and digital data are hard for ordinary diners to compare at purchase time.

Accountability Opacity Verified Medium confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

9Restaurant Brands International turns food into brand identity, fandom, lifestyle, family ritual, sports/snacking culture, faith-coded loyalty, or casual-dining belonging beyond plain nourishment.

Identity Capture Verified Medium confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

10Restaurant Brands International privacy materials or digital ordering systems show customer data collection through apps, websites, loyalty programs, payments, delivery, Wi-Fi, or advertising technology.

Surveillance Capture Verified Medium confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

11Restaurant Brands International presents franchised restaurant expansion as ordinary convenience and hospitality while underplaying the institutional power embedded in labor structure, menu engineering, animal supply, and data capture.

Ideological Disavowal Verified Medium confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

12OpenLobby records RESTAURANT BRANDS internet policyERNATIONAL INC (RBI) lobbying on tax, government issues, small-business policy, labor with about $2.1M in spending across 28 filings; the reviewed filings document private institutional lobbying over public rules rather than a public-interest advocacy role.

Policy Capture Verified High confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

13Restaurant Brands International has meat-centered restaurant model high-carbon product exposure based on its listed business model and current profile description: A public quick-service restaurant holding company behind Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, and Firehouse Subs. RBI offers convenient low-friction meals, but franchise extraction, meat-heavy menus, app and loyalty data,…

High Carbon Products Verified Medium confidence Human-reviewed

14Restaurant Brands International receives the Private Government badge because it combines large-scale private rule-setting over customers, workers, users, members, or counterparties with OpenLobby-documented lobbying of about $2.1M on public policy issues.

Private Government Verified Medium confidence AI-generated / human-pending

AI scaffold

Alternatives

Competitors

Help Improve This Profile

Submit source-backed evidence or challenge a specific claim, source, axis value, or calculation below.

How This Page Is Maintained

Evidence comes in through contributors, is checked by verifiers, and is synthesized by reviewers. Founder authority remains narrow and visible; scores recalculate when verified claims or the rubric change.

Civic Note

Incorporation, limited liability, market access, and other institutional privileges are public grants. Good Companies Directory treats those privileges as conditional on accountability to workers, users, communities, and the public.

Submit evidence for Restaurant Brands International Add one source-backed fact for review.

Challenge this rating Point to a specific score, claim, source, or calculation problem.

Audit Log

Recent public changes for this company or group. The full audit log is part of the Transparency record.

No company-specific audit entries have been published yet.

View Full Audit Log