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COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
6 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2023
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES:
The Company is a plaintiff or defendant in various lawsuits and claims arising out of the normal course of business. Like certain other franchisors, the Company has faced allegations of franchise regulation and agreement violations. Additionally, because the Company may be the tenant under a master lease for a location subleased to a franchisee, the Company has faced allegations of nonpayment of rent and associated charges. Further, similar to other retail employers, the Company has faced, and may continue to face, allegations of purported class-wide consumer and wage and hour violations.
Litigation is inherently unpredictable, and the outcome of these matters cannot presently be determined. Although the actions are being vigorously defended, the Company could incur judgments in the future or enter into settlements of claims that could have a material adverse effect on its results of operations in any particular period.
The Company owns a majority stake in Empire Education Group, Inc. (EEG). To be eligible to participate in Title IV programs, the schools operated by EEG must comply with specific standards and procedures set forth in the Higher Education Act and the regulations issued thereunder by the Department of Education. On October 10, 2023, the Department of Education issued a final rule applicable to “gainful employment” programs, which under the Higher Education Act, include all programs offered by the EEG schools and other proprietary institutions. Under this final rule, which becomes effective July 1, 2024, the continued Title IV eligibility of such programs will be based on meeting both a debt-to-earnings metric and an earnings premium metric. A program that fails either metric in a single year will be required to provide warnings to current and prospective students that it could be at risk of losing Title IV program eligibility. A program that fails to meet the same metric twice in a three-year period will lose Title IV program eligibility. The first measurement will be assessed in fiscal year 2025. Upon a loss of institutional or programmatic eligibility, EEG’s students would lose access to Title IV program funds and that could be detrimental to EEG's business model. Additionally, EEG students who are unable to complete their educational program with EEG, or who do not accept a teach-out opportunity with another institution, may be eligible for discharges of their federal student loan debt. Those discharged loan amounts and other Title IV funds disbursed to EEG students that do not complete their program, as well as other Title IV program funds, may constitute liabilities to the Department of Education. Because the Company holds a majority ownership interest in EEG and is a co-signatory to the Title IV program participation agreements of the EEG schools with the Department of Education, the Department of Education could hold the Company responsible for EEG's Title IV program liabilities. As of December 31, 2023, EEG had $10.1 million of Title IV liabilities. If EEG is unable to meet the required metrics for gainful employment programs and subsequently unable to allow students to complete their programs, then it is possible the Company could be liable for all or some of the Title IV liabilities. The Company does not believe that it is probable that it would be liable for a material portion of these liabilities because there is time for EEG to reduce its exposure to these liabilities and therefore has not recorded any accrual for this potential liability.