Some of the changes you can expect to the Franchising Code of Conduct from 1 January, 2015: 1. Online Sales If a franchisor, its associates, any of its franchisees or any third parties can sell some or all of its products online then the franchisor may need to disclose this.  The franchisor needs to disclose the extent to which the goods or services can be supplied into the territory of a franchisee. If the goods or services are made available through a third party website...

The case of SPAR Licensing Pty Ltd v MIS QLD Pty Ltd [2014] FCAFC 50 has considered the franchisor's obligation to provide updated solvency statements in disclosure documents given after the end of a financial year but before the disclosure document has been updated in accordance with the Franchising Code of Conduct (which currently allows franchisors until 31 October, 2014 to update it disclosure document for the previous financial year). It was held the franchisor needed to provi...

The raft of anticipated changes to the Franchising Code of Conduct are wide ranging and franchisors need to be aware of the anticipated new and extended obligations to be imposed on them. One such change is the anticipated requirement for franchisors to disclose information to their franchisees and proposed franchisees about online sales. It would seem that the franchisor will be required to disclose, amongst other things, the following: 1. if the franchisor, its associate...