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Non-Reliance Disclaimers and Anti-Waiver Provisions

By David J. Kaufmann
April 01, 2016

A number of conflicting decisions over the past year and a half concerning whether provisions prohibiting waiver of duties or liabilities under the New York Franchise Act prohibit franchisors from interposing franchisee “non-reliance” franchise agreement disclaimers when confronting fraud actions brought under the Act makes clear that this critical area of law will remain muddied until New York's appellate courts, and conceivably the Court of Appeals, decisively rule on the subject.

“Non-reliance” franchise agreement disclaimers are provisions in a franchise agreement, pre-signing questionnaire or separate writing (letter, franchisee “acknowledgement” or franchisee attestation) in which a franchisee acknowledges that, other than representations set forth in the franchisor's Franchise Disclosure Document and franchise agreement, the franchisee did not rely on any representations that may have been made in the franchise sales process regarding a specific subject or subjects, most commonly financial performance representations (how much money, on average, franchised or company-owned units gross or net) or guarantees of success.

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