It's actually Franchise Compliance that previously had the shops. They are worse than Freeman, as bad as that sounds, with regard to ripping shoppers off.
Though there have been assurances that Compliance Solutions is a completely separate entity from FC, there remains a grey area of crossover between some of the employees from all companies mentioned, including the client.
Myself, I would not touch one of the shops out of protest for how the client has handled the problem. It could have been an honest mistake, but the client was very cold to shoppers who complained when the payments stopped rolling in, and claimed they were not involved.
It's a lot of money to be putting out for someone who is picking up from where a lot of unreimbursed shoppers were left out in the cold. Chances are good that you would probably be reimbursed from the new MSC, but how will you feel if the same situation starts happening all over again. Perhaps if the client cannot find a MSC that can fulfill their need for shops, they will think twice about how they handled the business with FC and make a more sincere effort to get involved in getting shoppers paid.