Disclaimer, waiver and integration clauses are quite common provisions in franchise agreements, but the manner of how they are used and the way they are incorporated into the agreement determine their enforceability and consequently, their effectiveness.
Generally, when referring to a disclaimer we mean, the repudiation or renunciation of a claim or power vested in a person. A corollary provision to the disclaimer clause is the waiver, commonly thought of as the intentional or voluntary relinquishment of a known right. Disclaimer and waiver clauses are normally used in conjunction with an integration clause, which merges all prior understandings between the parties and all contemporaneous agreements into the franchise agreement as a final expression of the parties’ intent.
When not properly incorporated into your franchise agreements, these clauses can open up a can of worms by allowing franchisees to look at other ancillary documents for their interpretation of what the franchise agreement is meant to say. Rather than protecting the Franchisor, these clauses can be a sledge hammer for the franchisee to use against you. As the Franchisor, you do not want any opening for your franchisees to use against you. The language in your franchise agreement must be specific and negate any potential opening for your franchisees.
Whether your disclaimer, waiver and integration clauses are enforceable in court usually starts with the state’s public policy. As you might expect, public policy does not normally favor permitting a Franchisor to contract out of obligations, but good news – courts do recognize the legal implications of a contract, even in the face of statutory anti-waiver provisions, because they are reluctant to ignore the intentions of the parties which are evidenced by the written contract. When courts do give effect to disclaimer, waiver and integration provisions in the face of allegations like fraud, they do so based upon the initial finding that the franchisee could not have relied on the supposed misrepresentation because of the express language of the contract itself.
CONCLUSION
So, are disclaimer, waiver and integration clauses effective? The answer lies in how they are drafted and incorporated into your franchise agreement, as well as how each state accepts them. Are disclaimer, waiver and integration clauses and provisions important? Absolutely, they can be critical if you are sued by a franchisee. Without incorporating such provisions correctly in your franchise agreement you have nothing in writing to refute a franchisee’s allegations.