Quiznos loses meaty case to franchisee

Quiznos launches a campaign against Subway where they claim to provide more than twice the meat on its Prime Rib Chilly Cheesesteak (just writing that makes me feel stuffed) and to enforce their claim, they send mystery shoppers to order the sandwich at Quiznos franchises.  

This happened at a Pennsylvania franchise and when the shopper weighed the meat (did he bring a tiny scale?) it was only 4 ounces and not the required 4.5.  As a result these franchisees along with three hundred other franchises were sent termination notices requiring they shut down their stores.  BUT, these three hundred franchise were sent electronic notices that told them if they responded to an email address at the bottom of their “termination notice” they would get another email telling them they weren’t really terminated if they passed the next inspection.

Well, Mr. Piotrowski didn’t email but called the General Counsel and when Mr. P didn’t hear back, he emailed threatening to hold a press conference.  Quiznos didn’t take kindly to this and filed a lawsuit saying that had the franchisee had “materially damaged the brand.”

The judge didn’t like Quiznos behavior in this matter one bit and said so:

“I find that this whole charade of ‘terminating’ and ‘defaulting’ franchisees who failed the field test was just that – a charade – driven not by Quiznos’ genuine concern about whether its franchisees were making sandwiches to spec, but rather by its overriding public relations desire to be able to proceed with its national advertising campaign targeting Subway.”

The judge awarded the franchisees almost $400,000 for wrongfully breaching the Quiznos brand.  

Remind me, just who damaged the Quiznos brand?

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Tags: franchises, Lawsuit, Linkedin, Quiznos, Subway