Over the past 20 years, there has been a real move away from granting exclusive territories. Franchisors used to grant exclusive territories. However, they found themselves in difficult circumstances if the population of the territory grew a lot or otherwise the territory was too big for a franchisee to properly service and the franchisor did not have the right to change the size of the territory. That resulted in exclusive marketing territories becoming more popular. In these cases, franch...

Yesterday, Dr. Michael Schaper released the independent review of the Franchising Code of Conduct to the Australian government. He recommended that the Code should be “remade” and should not be allowed to sunset in April 2025. He did however recommend changes to existing provisions. He also recommended the government evaluate the possibility of licencing franchisees. He recognised a desire to address persistent issues in the sector without necessarily imposing greater complexit...

In a recent Federal Court ruling, Honda Australia Pty Ltd faced hefty penalties of $6 million for engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct.  It involved Honda’s false representations made to customers of three formerly authorized dealerships, saying that the latter would close or had closed and would no longer service Honda vehicles, when in fact, the dealerships continued to operate independent service centres. The consequences of Honda Australia's actions extend beyond ...