In the consultations received by the author from many franchise parties, many parties have doubts: "The franchise contract I signed has stated that once the franchise contract is signed, the franchise fee will not be refunded, so this Can the franchise fee still be refunded in this situation?” Based on handling a large number of franchise refund disputes, the author gave the following answer: According to legal provisions, in the franchise field, due to the huge information gap between franchisees and franchisees Symmetrically, franchisees are often easily misunderstood by false or exaggerated information from franchisees. They impulsively sign a contract and pay the franchise fee. In the end, they find that the reality is not as advertised by the franchisee or they find out after learning about the true franchise history. The contract price is far away, and the franchise often requires high franchise fees, large investment, and long franchise operation period, which will make franchisees very painful and either choose to breach the contract, or endure the pain to continue operating or even continue to make losses. It is precisely because of the existence of this situation that the law has special protection for franchisees, that is, franchisees are allowed to unilaterally terminate the contract and require a refund of the franchise fee if certain conditions are met. Therefore, the aforementioned agreement in the contract by the franchisee conflicts with the corresponding legal regulations, and therefore is often deemed to be an invalid clause. The author has handled many such cases, and in the end the court often broke through the terms of the contract and ruled that the franchisee should return the franchise fee.

Reference case:

Liu XX, Qinhuangdao XX Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd. (formerly Qinhuangdao XX Catering Management Co., Ltd.) second-instance civil judgment on franchise contract dispute, ruling to refund the franchise fee of 110,000 Yuan.

Points of the referee:

Article 3.2 of the "Service Contract" "This amount will not be refunded after Party A and Party B sign the contract", and Article 9.1 "Except for this, no other losses will be calculated. The agreement that no other requirements shall be made" is essentially an exemption clause. When XX Consulting Company neglects to perform its contractual obligations and has obvious subjective faults, if the court defaults to the validity of this clause, it means that one party is allowed to use this clause to avoid its own contractual obligations and obtain the legitimate interests of others, causing others to rights and interests are harmed. This agreement is not only unfair, but also completely contrary to the legislative purpose of invalidating the exemption clause in Article 53 of the Contract Law "if the other party's property losses are caused intentionally or due to gross negligence." Therefore, the agreements in Articles 3.2 and 9.1 should be invalid. . This court considers that the "Service Contract" and "Additional Agreement" have existed for one year. During this period, the "Missing the Taste of Home" brand resources were indeed occupied by Liu XX, and he should pay XX Consulting Company appropriate brand usage fees. This court It was decided that it was appropriate for Liu XX to pay RMB 15,000 as a brand usage fee to Zhongfa Consulting Company. The remaining fee of RMB 110,000 collected by XX Consulting Company from Liu XX should be returned to Liu XX to make up for his losses.

Lawyer’s Tip: The timeliness of franchise cases is critical. If you encounter such disputes, you should promptly entrust a professional lawyer to handle them. For more franchise legal issues, you can search and consult Hefei Lawyer Yu Zhiming