Commercial analysis: The English High Court recently considered the concept of exclusivity in the case of London Business House Ltd, Faisal Rehman v Pitman Training Ltd, Pitman Training Group Ltd. The judgment also considered whether there was a case for fraudulent misrepresentation in relation the franchisee's alleged reliance on pre-contractual statements. Gordon Drakes, partner at Fieldfisher, discusses the background to the case, the High Court’s decision and the key takeaways from the judgment.

This Checklist is for a franchise disclosure document or franchise verification documentation. It provides a list of the key elements for the franchisor to include within the franchise disclosure document or franchise verification documentation, to support its standing as a franchise business. In English law, there are no franchise-specific laws that require businesses that wish to franchise to produce ancillary documentation to support their standing as a franchise business. Most other countries throughout Europe and the rest of the world require businesses that wish to offer franchises to produce verification documentation that will enable franchisees to have a full and fair picture of a franchise business before deciding to invest. While the disclosure document is not a mandatory part of establishing a franchise business in the UK, the European Federation of Franchising (EFF) and the British Franchise Association (BFA), in adopting the EFF’s Code of Ethics, advocates the use of a voluntary disclosure document by franchisors that is part of the onboarding process for prospective franchisees. Disclosure documents in other jurisdictions are far more onerous, requiring,

The beneficiary of a franchise agreement to use an established brand or business method.

Introduction This Practice Note describes the application of the Trading Schemes Act 1996 (TSA 1996) in the context of franchises. It also considers the Fair Trading Act 1973 (FTA 1973), the Trading Schemes Regulations 1997, SI 1997/30 and the Trading Schemes (Exclusion) Regulations 1997, SI 1997/31. TSA 1996 and subsequent regulations made under it, were introduced to regulate pyramid selling schemes because, at the time, the existing legislation contained in FTA 1973 was considered to be inadequate. Unfortunately and unintentionally, franchises are potentially regulated by TSA 1996 because they may be treated as a ‘trading scheme’. Trading schemes—what are they? A trading scheme is defined in FTA 1973, s 118(8) as amended by TSA 1996 as: ‘…any arrangements made in connection with the carrying on of a business, whether those arrangements are made or recorded wholly or partly in writing or not.’ This ‘definition’ would appear to include virtually all agreements which businesses enter into, but not all such trading schemes are subject to regulation. FTA 1973, s 118(1) makes

This Checklist sets out a number of considerations and questions for a potential franchisor when contemplating use of a franchise business model. Initial considerations • Is the business model franchisable? Some business models may not be suitable as franchises by way of example, a business that has low margins, where custom is based upon the loyalty to a particular individual or the business model is confined to a particular area. • Who are the main competitors in the market and what is their market share? A franchisor will need to consider the barriers to entry into the market and the cost of acquiring a market share. • Who is the ideal customer for the product or service? The franchise model allows businesses to scale up quickly, therefore, a franchisor must be certain that its ideal customer can be found in many locations. • Has a SWOT analysis been carried out? SWOT is an acronym of a strategic planning method used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a project. • Has a PESTLE analysis

Law360, London: The owner of popular high-street pizzeria Franco Manca has agreed to settle its dispute with QIC Europe Ltd over losses the restaurant chain claimed to have suffered after it temporarily closed sites at the height of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has banned Frank Breuer from working in UK financial services and fined him £755,000 for repeatedly acting without integrity and putting customers at risk for personal financial gain. The FCA found that Breuer had breached Statement of Principle 1 (APER) and Individual Conduct Rule 1 (ICR 1) by acting without integrity.

The European Parliament and the Council of the EU have chosen Frankfurt as the seat of the new EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA), which will supervise the riskiest financial entities, oversee the non-financial sector, and play a role in stopping financial sanction evasion.

Arbitration analysis: This case concerns a request by a party to an arbitration conducted under the rules of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) to declare several procedural orders of the arbitral tribunal enforceable in the Federal Republic of Germany. The applicant withdrew the application for recognition and enforcement of the procedural orders after the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court hearing the case indicated that the application was manifestly inadmissible. After Brexit where enforcing English court judgments in Germany has become more onerous and time consuming, the Frankfurt court did not generally call the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards between the UK and Germany in question. The court found that in this specific case, the ‘orders’, which were the subject matter of the application for recognition and enforcement, did not qualify as arbitral awards within the meaning of the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards of 10 June 1958 (New York Convention). Written by Lucie Gerhardt, associated partner at Noerr PartGmbB, Frankfurt am Main.

Practice of using occupational pension scheme rights (which were not indexed) to pay for the index linking of Guaranteed Minimum Pensions (GMPs).

The European Commission has announced that the Executive Vice-President, Frans Timmermans, has resigned as Member of the Commission, following his decision to be a candidate in the forthcoming general election campaign in the Netherlands. Timmermans was responsible for developing the European Green Deal to push Europe to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, has now assigned the role of Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal to Vice-President, Maroš Šefčovič. She has also momentarily assigned the portfolio responsibility for Climate Action Policy to Šefčovič until a new Member of the Commission of Dutch nationality is appointed

The offence of fraud under the Fraud Act 2006, s 1, may be committed by: (a) dishonestly making a false representation (to a person, or to any system or device) with a view to gain or with intent to cause loss or expose to a risk of loss; (b) dishonestly (and with a view to gain or with intent to cause loss, etc) failing to disclose information when under a legal duty to disclose it; or (c) dishonest abuse of position, with a view to gain or to cause loss, etc. It is irrelevant whether gain, loss or exposure to loss actually occurs.