When does a franchisor go too far when recruiting franchisees?
In the judgment of the Court of Appeal of Arnhem-Leeuwarden on 5 February 2019, ECLI:NL:GHARL:2019:1024 the issue was whether the franchisor had acted impermissibly when recruiting the franchisees. The franchisor, Otto Simon, was accused of persuading the franchisees to enter into a franchise agreement for the exploitation of the Top1Toys through misleading texts on the franchisor’s website.
The franchisees are particularly concerned with the following passages on the website:
The franchisees emphasized that the franchisor is the expert in this case and that they could simply rely on the statements on the website.
The Court finds that the text on the franchisor’s website is aimed at potential franchisees and that therefore the assessment of whether this publication is misleading must be based on the knowledge and imagination of an averagely informed and observant (prospective) entrepreneur. The average commercial public should be aware of, and therefore not be influenced by, the fact that advertising often has a certain exaggeration. Against the background of those principles, the court does not consider the statements on the website of the franchisor to be misleading.
mr. AW Dolphin – franchise lawyer
Ludwig & Van Dam Franchise attorneys, franchise legal advice. Do you want to respond? Go to dolphijn@ludwigvandam.nl
![239handshake](https://www.ludwigvandam.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/239handshake.jpg)
Other messages
The hardness of a non-competition clause in bankruptcy
Most franchise agreements contain post-contract non-competition clauses
E-mail traffic between franchisor and franchisee
If a discussion gets out of hand and a real conflict arises, can communication continue via email?
Turnover-related rent for franchisees
Increasingly, franchisor/landlord and franchisee/lessee are pursuing opportunity for a variety of reasons
Control and guidance
Situations occur with some regularity in practice in which a franchisee
Rental problems: a follow-up
Earlier in this section attention was paid to the possibilities for tenants of retail space in particular
Restyling, shopfitting
Within franchise organizations it often happens that the entire shop interior needs to be replaced.