When business opportunity hits a stone

International Franchising has acquired speed in the past few years. Master Franchises now are well equipped with the capital for expansion and also the knowledge of local territories where they need to expand their business.

However, each country acts differently when there are legal issues coming up and the franchisor must be well-aware or prepared for the consequences. There are different regulations imposed by countries regarding pre-sale, disclosure policies, technology transfer etc.

International Franchise Disputes:

Contract: International franchises are formed through contracts. Whenever a dispute arises, the court would first analyse the contract agreement.

Targets: Disputes also arise when the franchisee is unable to meet its targets or unable to expand in the pre-defined region set by the franchisor. Here, the franchisor might argue that the franchisee is not paying up franchise fee on time, while on the other hand the franchisee might claim that he is not receiving enough cooperation and support from the master franchisor.

Supplier Management: Another reason of dispute can be dealing with suppliers. Franchisors at times, authorize suppliers from whom the goods or technical support is to be taken, wherein the franchisee might not be able to deal with them which lead to dispute.

Various other causes of disputes are difference of opinion, conflict of opinions in implementing overall uniformity irrespective of markets, lack of training by franchisor; franchisee works in his own way, breaching the system, disagreement on the quantity and quality of goods, import and export difficulties etc.

International Franchise Lawyer:

An international franchise lawyer would help a franchisor to set up franchisees in an orderly manner. The lawyer would guide the franchisor in franchisee agreement, which should be in accordance with the local laws and also in different languages.

The lawyer would also help in solving the contractual issues, frauds or illegal closure of contracts or any other violation issues.