FDD Items 3 & 4 · 2026 filing
Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar litigation history
What Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar disclosed about lawsuits, arbitrations and bankruptcy in the 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document. Item 3 lists the material legal actions a franchisor must report; Item 4 covers bankruptcy. This is the franchisor's own disclosure, not a court record, and not legal advice.
Items 3 (litigation) & 4 (bankruptcy) at a glance
What the filing discloses
- Cases disclosed
- 8
- Item 3, as counted in the filing
- Largest settlement, franchisor's own cases
- $14.3M
- As stated in Item 3
- Bankruptcy (Item 4)
- Disclosed · an officer
- Franchisor, parent, predecessor or officer
- Filing year
- 2026
- Disclosures cover the prior ten years
Extracted from the 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document
Item 3: litigation
8 matters. Pending: Applebee's Franchisor LLC v. Mountain Apple, LLC (D. Kan. 24-cv-02285; claims against four former franchisees for unpaid royalties and fees, stayed after the franchisees' bankruptcy filing). Concluded: Applebee's v. William J. Georgas and the related Apple Central KC adversary proceeding (settled Dec 2, 2025, Applebee's was paid $4,000,000; the filing also lists the adversary proceeding under Pending); Vampire Family Brands (trademark, settled 2021 for $320,000 paid to plaintiff); Mendez (ADA gift cards, settled $7,000); Heartland Consumer Products (trademark, settled 2018); Olander (collection, dismissed 2018); RMH Franchise (franchisee bankruptcy, settled 2018); Watkins (NJ consumer class action, dismissed, affirmed 2014).
Disclosed in the 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document
Item 4: bankruptcy
Vance Chang, CFO, was CFO of YogaWorks, Inc. which filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 14, 2020 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware due to COVID-19 pressures.
Before you weigh a lawsuit
How to read Item 3
A franchisor must disclose pending actions and any material civil action involving the franchise relationship, plus convictions or civil judgments for fraud, unfair or deceptive practices, or franchise-law violations, going back ten years. A case the franchisor brought against a franchisee counts too. Item 3 does not include every dispute: settled claims below the materiality line and matters resolved in private arbitration can be absent.
Questions worth asking current and former franchisees, using the contact list in Item 20:
- Were you, or anyone you know in the system, party to a dispute with the franchisor?
- Was it resolved by settlement, arbitration or a court, and on what terms?
- Has the number of disputes gone up or down since you signed?