FRANCE: The franchisor should provide the potential franchisee with full precontractual information on the local market. Decision of the Court of Appeal Of Paris of June 23rd, 2006 (Cleret et al. v. Euromark International et al.).

Didier FERRIER | FRANCE | 2006-10-16

Didier FERRIER

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In particular, pursuant to Article L 330-3 of the Commercial Code that compels the franchisor to provide all the necessary information to the future franchisee within twenty days from the conclusion of the contract, the franchisor created a file presenting the local market, based on a “survey [of potential customers] realised in the last ten years”.

The Court stated that the mentioned elements “did not provide enough information […] on the situation of the local market” to the candidate franchisee, who should have obtained further specifications “particularly about the number of contracts that the franchisor has previously concluded in this field, about his experience and about the turnover realised by the competitors” .

As a consequence, the contract has been declared null and the amount of money paid by the franchisee (entry fees, royalties, training expenses) should be refunded.

 

Didier Ferrier, IDI Country Expert for France. 

 

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