FranChat: March 2022

The newsletter focuses on legal developments impacting franchise businesses across the globe. In this edition we are delighted to include a guest article from Charlotte Kula-Przezwanski (Partner & Director of EMEA, Columbus Consulting), which looks at the importance of digital assets and quality, timely master data for retailers who have wholesale and franchise partners.

The newsletter will also keep you informed of any news and events from our Franchising team and other groups across Bird & Bird that we think may be of interest.

Keeping in touch

Please do get in touch with the authors or your usual contact if you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in these articles, or visit our webpage for more information about Bird & Bird's Franchising team.

In this newsletter

• Guest Article
• Spotlight on European Competition Law
• Global
• Australia
• Saudi
• UAE
• News & Events

Guest Article

The growing importance of digital assets and quality, timely master data for retailers who have wholesale and franchise partners

Thank you to Charlotte Kula-Przezwanski (Partner & Director of EMEA, Columbus Consulting) for contributing this article.

As you can imagine, with the global pandemic that we’ve all been living with, this has accelerated the need for retailers to ensure that their Master Data is of the highest quality and is also timely.

With most sales campaigns moving “virtual”, providing your B2B partners with all the Digital Assets and Master Data they need to make informed decisions during the “buying” process is vital. Many retailers have a large amount of data and digital assets, but they are in many different forms, locations not easily accessible, often inaccurate, and takes internal teams a long time to pull together.

Read more 

Spotlight on European Competition Law

VBER review: Welcome guidance on info exchange in dual distribution and the vanishing 10%

In August of 2021, the European Commission published its long-awaited draft of the new Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (Draft Revised VBER). You can read our full summary and analysis of the proposals here. In it, we set out how the Draft Revised VBER and its accompanying guidelines (Draft Revised Guidelines) substantially differ from the current regime on topical issues including dual distribution, dual pricing, retail parity obligations, active sales restrictions, and certain indirect measures restricting online sales. We explained how the Commission’s policy recognises the developments in online distribution and the changing dynamics between suppliers and resellers in multichannel distribution relations.

Read more

The Draft VABEO is finally published: The new competition law regime for supply chain agreements

The UK Government has published the long-awaited Draft Vertical Agreement Block Exemption Order 2022 (“Draft VABEO”) which will replace the Retained Vertical Agreement Block Exemption regulation (VABER) due to expire in May 2022. You can access the full text here.

The Draft VABEO sets out the application of UK competition law to vertical (supply chain) agreements. The Draft VABEO comes with an accompanying explanatory memorandum but without the CMA’s Guidance which will also deserve close scrutiny. The Draft VABEO gives effect to the CMA’s recommendations (previously summarised here).

Read more 

Global

Venture capital and franchising: A new trend

In recent years we have become used to seeing how the businesses that have franchised their concept successfully have raised the interest and investment appetite of financial investors, particularly of the private equity funds. Franchisors are an attractive investment given they are light on assets, offer a recurrence and certainty in financial return, and have great capacity to grow and become global. Investors have paid great multiples for such investments and made great exits afterwards.

Read more

Australia

The rapidly changing Australian franchising sector: A legal update (Q1 2022)

In June 2021, we published an article which alerted franchisors to the various reforms to the Australian Franchising Code of Conduct that came into effect from 1 July 2021. These reforms had the overall impact of strengthening protection for franchisees.

The Australian Government is now doubling down on its commitment to the increased protection of franchisees in a sector that is already franchisee-friendly when compared with capitalist markets abroad.

Read more 

Saudi

Latest developments in Saudi: What do franchisors need to know?

There continues to be strong demand in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to attract international franchisors to introduce their franchise concepts and brands into the Kingdom. The focus is predominantly on the retail and consumer sectors, and we have seen a large number of franchise deals recently in restaurants, clothing stores and entertainment facilities. Interestingly, consumers are looking beyond western brands, and we have seen Asian franchisors establish a presence in the Kingdom through franchising. Further, the authorities are active in recruiting additional franchise brands to establish a presence in the Kingdom.

Read more

UAE

Updates from the UAE that all franchise businesses need to know in 2022

Businesses with operations in the UAE need to be aware of a number of changes taking place in 2022. In this article, we look at updates to patents, designs and copyright law, the switch to a Monday-Friday working week, and the implementation of the Madrid Protocol.

Read more

News & Events

Our Franchising team retains Band 1 ranking in Chambers Global

We are delighted to have been recognised in the latest edition of the Chambers & Partners Global Market Leaders guide, where we have again been ranked in Band 1. Partners Graeme Payne, Mark Abell, Melissa Murray and Victoria Hobbs have also been recognised in the individual lawyer rankings.

The Chambers Global guide notes that our team is "globally renowned with a strong presence in Europe, Asia and the Middle East", and has "an accomplished franchise-related dispute resolution practice which is the first port of call for many international companies".

Many thanks to our clients who have provided feedback and helped us to maintain our top tier ranking.

Take a look at the full write-up here