FDD Items 3 & 4 · 2026 filing
Einstein Bros. Bagels litigation history
What Einstein Bros. Bagels 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 & 4 at a glance
What the filing discloses
- Cases disclosed
- 4
- Item 3, as counted in the filing
- Largest disclosed settlement
- $47K
- As stated in Item 3
- Bankruptcy (Item 4)
- None
- Franchisor, parent, predecessor or officer
- Filing year
- 2026
- Disclosures cover the prior ten years
Extracted from the 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document
Item 3: litigation
Three pending cases as of the FDD date: (1) GKFC-Laurelwood, LLC v. Einstein and Noah Corp. (Colorado state court, Feb 2026) - promissory estoppel/detrimental reliance over a terminated location; (2) Einstein Bros. Bagels Franchise Corp. v. Waleed Mansour, Superwings, Inc., and Bagel Genius, Inc. (D. Colo., Oct 2025) - franchisor-initiated suit for breach of Area Development Agreement; (3) Bagel Genius, Inc., Superwings, Inc., and Waleed Mansour v. Einstein Bros. Bagels Franchise Corp. (Cal. Superior Court, Oct 2025) - franchisee counter-suit alleging fraud, misrepresentation, and related claims arising from the same Area Development Agreement dispute. Additionally, a franchisor-initiated trademark infringement action: Einstein Bros. Bagel Franchise Corp. and Einstein and Noah Corp. v. J.F.C Management Holdings, LLC and Ramona D. Hall (D. Colo., filed Dec 2024).
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?