FDD Items 3 & 4 · 2025 filing
Great American Cookies litigation history
What Great American Cookies 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
- 5
- Item 3, as counted in the filing
- Largest disclosed settlement
- $2.5M
- As stated in Item 3
- Bankruptcy (Item 4)
- Disclosed
- Franchisor, parent, predecessor or officer
- Filing year
- 2025
- Disclosures cover the prior ten years
Extracted from the 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document
Item 3: litigation
Pending: (1) Zhang v. Yalla Mediterranean/FAT Brands - arbitration re franchise fraud allegations, seeking $745K+; (2) In re FAT Brands Securities Litigation (consolidated Matthews/Chipman) - securities class action, settled for $2.5M cash + $0.5M stock. Concluded: (3) Shahi v. FBNA - dismissed Oct 2021; (4) P&K v. Buffalo's Franchise - dismissed Feb 2019; (5) Rojany/Vignola v. FAT Brands - settled for $50K and $75K respectively.
Disclosed in the 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document
Item 4: bankruptcy
Former affiliates of FBNA (Fatburger Restaurants of California, Inc. and Fatburger Restaurants of Nevada, Inc.) filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 6, 2009, subsequently converted to Chapter 7 on June 24, 2011.
Disclosure signals that moved the score
How this shows up in the verdict
- Multiple active securities class action lawsuits against parent FAT Brands and officers raise governance and transparency concerns
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?