Franchise Matters (a) Since June 30, 2003, the Company and its Subsidiaries (i) have maintained records of all franchise activities in which full, true, and complete entries have been made of all material dealings and transactions in relation to their franchise activities, including all offering circulars, Franchise Agreements (as defined below), correspondence with franchisees, written complaints by franchisees, and government audits, (ii) have complied in all material respects with all applicable Laws regarding franchise activities and other franchise-related matters, (iii) have complied with all franchise agreements and other agreements by which the Company or its Subsidiaries directly or indirectly grant any third party franchise rights (whether not such agreement was entered into before or after June 30, 2002, each, a “Franchise Agreement”), (iv) have obtained and maintained in place franchisee agreements which contain provisions requiring the franchisee to (A) indemnify the Company or any Subsidiary, as applicable, with respect to claims relating to the franchisee’s business and (B) to obtain insurance from financially sound and respectable insurers to cover such indemnity, naming the Company as additional insured and loss payee, (v) have timely filed with the applicable Governmental Entities all Uniform Franchise Offering Circulars and other required filings, (vi) each Uniform Franchise Offering Circular delivered to any franchisee, prospective franchisee, or Governmental Entity by the Company or any Subsidiary complied in all material respects as of the date delivered with all requirements of applicable Law, and, when delivered, did not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact required to be stated therein or necessary in order to make the statements therein, in light of the circumstances under which they were made, not misleading, and (vii) the Company and its Subsidiaries have accounted for and administered in accordance with the Franchise Agreements and applicable franchise laws all advertising and marketing funds and cooperatives, if any, which the Company and its Subsidiaries administer and into which monies are paid by their franchisees. Section 3.25(a) of the Company Disclosure Letter sets forth a complete and accurate list, as of the date hereof, of all currently effective Franchise Agreements, including the name of the franchisee and the date and expiration date of the applicable Franchise Agreement. The Company has provided the Buyer with true, complete and correct copies of all currently effective Franchise Agreements, including any amendments or modifications thereto, as of the date hereof, and there are no oral agreements, promises or understandings with respect to any currently effective Franchise Agreements.
(b) Except as set forth in Section 3.25(b) of the Company Disclosure Letter:
(i) the royalty rates and required advertising contributions specified in each currently effective Franchise Agreement remain in effect, are being paid when due and have not been reduced, modified, waived, or otherwise affected by any Franchise Agreement “side letter,” modification, amendment, waiver, or suspension, in whole or in part and each currently effective Franchise Agreement is in full force and effect;
(ii) all franchise registrations remain in full force and effect and are not the subject of any existing or threatened action by a Governmental Entity or otherwise intended, in whole or in part, to result in the termination, revocation, modification, suspension, conditioning, or dissolution of any such franchise registration and/or any other circumstance which might or would impair, impede or preclude the Company’s ability routinely to renew or amend (as the case may be) any such franchise registration and/or enter into Franchise Agreements in any jurisdiction;
(iii) there are no written, or to the Knowledge of the Company, threatened, franchisee complaints, threats to initiate litigation or arbitration, or threats to file complaints with a Governmental Entity, whether such threats have been filed either with the Company or any Subsidiary and/or any third party (including any Governmental Entity);
(iv) there exists no extant formal or, to the Knowledge of the Company, informal, complaint, inquiry, investigation, or judicial or administrative action or proceeding, communicated or commenced (as the case may be) by any Governmental Entity, to or against the Company or any Subsidiary regarding its offer and sale of franchises; the administration of its franchise network; advancing or referring to any complaint received from any franchisee; inquiring of or contesting any element of the Company’s franchise program or franchise relationships (including antitrust issues such as predatory pricing or monopolization); and/or, otherwise related to the Company’s or any Subsidiary’s compliance with any franchise Law;
(v) there exists no litigation or other claims asserted by any third party against any of the Company’s franchisees in which the Company or any Subsidiary is a party thereto under any theory, including negligence or “vicarious liability”;
(vi) no supply Contract to which the Company or any Subsidiary is a party may be unilaterally terminated by the subject supplier as a result of this Agreement, the Offer, the Merger or any of the other transactions contemplated by this Agreement, if that supply contract is material to the operation of the Company’s network of franchisees, taken as a whole;
(vii) since December 31, 2004, neither the Company, nor any of its Subsidiaries has refused to renew any Franchise Agreement;
(viii) to the Company’s Knowledge, no franchisee of the Company or any of its Subsidiaries is currently in default in any material respect under any Franchise Agreement;
(ix) since December 31, 2004, neither the Company nor any of its Subsidiaries has terminated any Franchise Agreement; and
(x) the Company may enter into this Agreement and consummate the transactions contemplated hereby without the consent of any Franchisee.
