I have signed a franchisee agreement with an E-commerce company, under which I have invested a large amount in the company. Against the investment, the company has to provide me selling products in my warehouse, which will be sold on Flipkart and Amazon by generating sales orders by company. As per agreement, the company shall not give any profit in the first 6 months but from the 7th month company shall give me a fixed % guaranteed profit margin on my investment amount, even if the sales are not achieved. The time of providing the products and starting the sale are not mentioned in the agreement but giving the profit is mentioned from 7th month. According to the verbal discussion, the company had to start products availability and sales from the 4th month. But even after starting the 8th month, the company neither provided the products nor brought the sales order. All these conversations I saved as a record on WhatsApp. The company is not denying to give my first (7th month) profit margin which is payable in the 8th month. The 8th month is also going on. There is fear now of being cheated due to the company not providing the products and not starting the sales and making excuses on asking. The company’s GST has got canceled before agreement, which the company has kept hidden from me till now and is also the main reason for not providing the goods.
Firstly there is a provision of arbitration for dispute resolution in the agreement, and then a provision has been made to present the suit in the district court.
Should I wait for the full 8th month for my profit margin to come or file a criminal (fraud) case along with civil (breach of contract) case against the company or or should go for arbitration or take any other legal action?
Please guide me to get back my money in shortest time.
