FDD Items 3 & 4 · 2024 filing
Mochinut litigation history
What Mochinut disclosed about lawsuits, arbitrations and bankruptcy in the 2024 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
- 6
- Item 3, as counted in the filing
- Largest disclosed settlement
- $160K
- As stated in Item 3
- Bankruptcy (Item 4)
- None
- Franchisor, parent, predecessor or officer
- Filing year
- 2024
- Disclosures cover the prior ten years
Extracted from the 2024 Franchise Disclosure Document
Item 3: litigation
Franchisor's affiliate Salt & Light/CEO Tang entered a WA DFI consent order for unregistered franchise sales. Predecessor entities (MFI, MI) and their principal Jaewook Ha faced 6 franchisee-initiated lawsuits (mostly in CA and WA) alleging unregistered franchise sales, breach of contract, and misrepresentation; several were settled ($160,000, $75,000, $68,000) and two remain pending. Separately, MI/MFI entered into 6 state administrative consent orders/settlements (CA, IL, MD, MN, VA, WA) for offering/selling franchises without registration, paying penalties ranging from $1,000 to $50,000.
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?