Franchise Disputes

Disputes between franchisors and franchisees can be complex and time-consuming, as well as potentially detrimental to business.

Darwin Gray’s team have decades of experience of dealing with, negotiating and settling franchise disputes to achieve fair results and ensure long-term legal protection for our clients. We advise on the commercial and practical solutions, with a focus on costs-efficiency.

Our expert lawyers work closely together to combine expertise across franchise law, litigation, commercial property and employment law. We work holistically to identify all issues involved in franchise disputes, including when it comes to managing exits or disputes over territorial exclusivity.

Avoiding disputes

In order to mitigate the risk of franchise disputes, we recommend that franchise agreements are professionally drafted, ensuring that it provides the right legal protection should a dispute arise.

We always carry out a “lessons-learned” approach to franchise disputes with a franchisor to ensure their franchise agreement contains the most bespoke and up to date protection to reflect the latest changes in their industry sector and also the evolving franchise legal landscape.

Breach of franchise agreement

Our team of expert franchise lawyers have years of experience advising both franchisors and franchisees when it comes to breaches of a franchise agreement, whether by the franchisor or franchisee.

For franchisors

There are often scenarios whereby a franchisee may not have performed as expected and are failing to meet targets, or failing to pay franchise fees. We support franchisors in these situations, advising on terminating franchise agreements as well as claims for recovery of management fees. If you have a franchisee who has breached their agreement, get in touch to see how we can help.

For franchisees

For lots of people, entering into a franchise is one of the most significant legal commitments that they’ll ever make and it’s very important to be clear about what it involves. A dispute over a breach of a franchise agreement can include misrepresentation of the franchise opportunity or inadequate support from the franchisor, and sometimes both. If you think that your franchisor has breached your franchise agreement or misrepresented the franchise business in some way, get in touch.

 Recent cases

Recent examples of franchise disputes that we have advised on include:

• Advising a franchisee on breaches of the third term franchise agreement by a major international franchisor. Our specialist contract advice and forensic financial analysis meant we could readily identify losses and quantify a large claim that our client has against the franchisor.
• Bringing a county court claim against a franchisee for breach of contract and failure to pay management fees, and breach of personal guarantee where the franchisee was a limited company.
• Advising a franchisor on post-termination restrictions and injunctive relief to prevent an ex-franchisee setting up a rival business using franchise contacts and confidential information.
• Negotiating settlement on the termination of a franchise agreement and the payment of outstanding franchise fees.
• Representing a franchisor in a mediation over early termination of a franchise agreement.

If you need any advice on franchise disputes (including urgent advice where an injunction may be necessary), please contact a member of our team in confidence here or on 02920 829 100 for a free initial call to see how they can help.