On September 28, 2021, Fox Rothschild partner Craig Tractenberg with Rochelle Spandorf from Davis Wright Tremaine LLP provided perspectives on drafting licenses and distribution agreements respecting the evergreen issue of creating an accidental franchise in a Strafford Publications webinar. They also discussed best practices for complying with federal and state franchise and business opportunity laws
Latest Franchise Investment Trends
Recently, I moderated a panel for an International Franchise Association webinar called “From Venture Capital to Private Equity: Franchise Investment Trends and Terms”. I was fortunate to have fantastic panelists: Satya Ponnuru (General Partner of NewSpring Franchise), Vanessa Yakobson (CEO of Blo Blow Dry Bar), Bernard Markey (Navigator Partners) and Ed Teixeira (Franchise Grade). I
Franchising Threat No. 4: The Deus Ex Machina (A Biden Executive Order)
While the Protect the Right to Organize (PRO) Act was passed by the House of Representatives, it has not been made part of the Biden administration’s infrastructure efforts thus far and does not appear have sufficient support to overcome a certain filibuster in the Senate. Therefore, passage of the Act in its present form is
Franchising Threat No. 3: Other State Legislation and Policies
The California version of the ABC test is arguably the most hostile to franchising. Nonetheless, the risk is not confined to California.
This is because the ABC employee classification test, with variations, has been adopted in a majority of states including, in addition to California: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana,
Franchising Threat No. 2: Joint Employment is BACK!
The second troublesome threat is the joint employment standard. The Obama Adminstration DOL caused angst in the franchise industry in January 2016, when it adopted a joint employment standard that focused on “whether the employee is dependent on the potential joint employer who, via an arrangement with the intermediary employer, is benefitting from the work.”
Franchising Threat No. 1: The PRO Act
The PRO Act would do serious, and perhaps mortal, damage to the franchise industry. It would make sweeping changes to the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA), and the Labor Management and Disclosure Act (LMDA). Most pertinent to franchising, the PRO Act would adopt the California ABC standard for determining
Legal Threats to the Franchise Industry: Is this the Apocalypse? (Part 1)
Omens of the Apocalypse for the franchise industry are everywhere:
- The pending Protect the Right to Organize (PRO) Act;
- The return of David Weill, author of Fissured Employment and chief architect of the Obama era joint employment standard, to the Department of Labor as Wage and Hour Administrator;
- Withdrawal of the control-based joint employment standard
Franchises Have NIL Questions . . . We Have (Some) Answers
Starting on July 1, 2021. the NCAA permitted student-athletes throughout the country to profit from their name, image, and likeness (“NIL”). This decision marks a major shift from the NCAA’s longstanding amateurism model. Twenty-eight states have also enacted their own NIL laws, and sixteen of those—including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas, Kentucky, Ohio,
Popular Franchise Funding Source (EB-5 Program) Rocked by Two Major Developments
With Ali Brodie
EB-5 Investments are a popular way of raising capital for franchise expansion. So it came as a bit of a shock last week the EB-5 Program was rocked by two major developments.
EB-5 Modernization Rule Struck Down (For Now)
On June 22, 2021, Magistrate Judge Jaqueline Scott Corley from the U.S. District
Franchise Agreements in Bankruptcy Cases and Business Restructurings
Please join Elizabeth Rose of Caiola & Rose LLC, Jason Binford of the Texas Office of the Attorney General, and me, John Gotaskie, on July 14th for a 90 minute CLE sponsored by the ABA Forum on Franchising discussing Franchise Agreements in Bankruptcy Cases and Business Restructurings.
Bankruptcy and other forms of business restructuring