Subway exploited immigrants and victimized franchisees, bombshell lawsuit alleges

Subway’s massive chain of sandwich shops has become a hotbed of financial exploitation for overseas immigrants, victimizing those it has tapped as franchisees and even driving some to ruin, an explosive lawsuit claims.

For years, the fast-food giant has recruited immigrants, mostly from Asia, to expand a US chain that a decade ago had spanned more than 25,000 locations nationwide. While aspiring entrepreneurs believed they were buying into the American Dream, some instead were caught in a loosely managed corporate network that was rife with corruption, according to a suit filed last month in Nevada state court.

In particular, the suit claims that some of Subway’s so-called “business development agents,” or BDAs – typically large franchisees themselves who were also given managerial power to oversee hundreds or even thousands of locations in a given territory – have systematically socked unwitting franchisees with nitpicking rules and costly fees.In some cases, rogue BDAs have used Subway’s overgrown schedule of rules and fees to steal away the stores of other franchisees, according to the suit. Even worse, the BDAs are given access to franchisees’ books, enabling them to determine which locations are ripe for cherry-picking, the suit claims.

“Subway is allowing its BDAs to profit off the backs of minorities, Indian Americans and/or Indian immigrants who have oftentimes invested their entire life savings on their franchises,” according to the suit, which was filed last month in Nevada state court.

https://nypost.com/2021/12/21/subway-exploited-immigrants-and-victimized-franchisees-lawsuit/