In the consultation received by the author from many franchisees, many people have doubts: "The franchise contract I signed has indicated that the franchise fee will not be refunded once the franchise contract is signed, so can the franchise fee be refunded in this case?" On the basis of dealing with a large number of disputes over the return of franchise fees, the author gives the following answers: According to the law, in the field of franchising, franchisees are often easily caught in the wrong understanding by false or exaggerated information of franchisees, signing contracts on the spur of the moment and paying franchise fees, and finally find that the contract prices are not as advertised by franchisees or are far apart after understanding the real franchise situation. However, joining often requires high joining fees, large investment and long operating cycle, which will make franchisees very painful, and they will either choose to default or continue to operate or even continue to lose money. It is precisely because of this situation that the law has special protection for franchisees, that is, franchisees are allowed to unilaterally terminate the contract under certain conditions and demand a refund of the franchise fee. Therefore, the above agreement of the franchisee in the contract conflicts with the provisions of the corresponding laws, so it is often considered as an invalid clause. The author has dealt with many such cases, and in the end, the court often breaks through the terms of the contract and decides the franchisee to return the franchise fee.

Reference case:

Qinhuangdao XX Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd. (formerly Qinhuangdao XX Catering Management Co., Ltd.) made a second-instance civil judgment on Liu XX's franchise contract dispute, and decided to refund the franchise fee 1 10000 yuan.

Referee points:

Article 3.2 of the service contract, "This payment will not be refunded after both parties sign the contract", and Article 9. 1, "No other losses will be calculated and no other requirements will be raised", are all exemption clauses in essence. If the court acquiesces that this clause is effective when XX Consulting Company fails to perform its contractual obligations for a long time, it means that one party is allowed to use this clause to evade its contractual obligations, obtain the legitimate interests of others, and damage the rights and interests of others. This agreement is not only in obviously unfair, but also completely violates the legislative purpose that the exemption clause in Article 53 of the Contract Law "Causing the property loss of the other party due to intentional or gross negligence" is invalid, so the agreements in Article 3.2 and Article 9. 1 should be invalid. Considering that the service contract and supplementary agreement have been in existence for one year, during which the brand resources of "Miss Jiawei" were really occupied by Liu XX, she should pay an appropriate brand usage fee to XX Consulting Company. Our hospital decided that Liu XX should pay the brand use fee of 15000 yuan to Zhongfa Consulting Company, and XX Consulting Company should charge Liu XX the remaining fee of 1 10 yuan.

Lawyer's tip: the timeliness of joining the case is more critical. If you encounter such disputes, you should entrust a professional lawyer to deal with them in time. For more legal questions about joining, you can search and consult Yu Zhiming of Hefei.