FDD Items 3 & 4 · 2025 filing
Elevation Burger litigation history
What Elevation Burger disclosed about lawsuits, arbitrations and bankruptcy in the 2025 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
- 8
- Item 3, as counted in the filing
- Largest disclosed settlement
- $2.5M
- As stated in Item 3
- Bankruptcy (Item 4)
- None
- Franchisor, parent, predecessor or officer
- Filing year
- 2025
- Disclosures cover the prior ten years
Extracted from the 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document
Item 3: litigation
1 pending securities class action (Kates v. FAT Brands 2024). 7 concluded matters: In re FAT Brands Securities Litigation (settled $3M); 2x Virginia SCC v. FBNA registration violations (settled); Shahi v. FBNA (franchise rescission, dismissed 2021); P&K Food Market v. Buffalo's Franchise Concepts (dismissed 2019); Rojany/Alden consolidated securities litigation (settled $50K); Vignola v. FAT Brands securities litigation (settled $75K).
Disclosure signals that moved the score
How this shows up in the verdict
- Parent company FAT Brands facing active securities class action lawsuits with officer involvement suggesting corporate governance/transparency issues
- Regulatory settlement with Virginia over franchise registration and financial reporting inaccuracies indicates compliance failures and potential misrepresentation to franchisees
The verdict grade is FranchiseVerdict's editorial assessment across SBA loan performance, unit growth, revenue and disclosure signals. It is not investment advice.
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?