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Is Franchising Doomed?
Strategies for Negotiating with a Franchisee and Franchisor
Before committing to a franchise business, consider...
A Maryland federal district court denied a restaurant franchisor’s motion to dismiss, concluding that a restaurant manager at a franchised location alleged sufficient facts to support a finding that the franchisor is a joint...more
Last week, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued final rules broadening the definition of joint employers under federal labor law. A joint employer is a company that is not the employee’s direct W-2 employer, but...more
A federal court in Maine granted a franchisor’s motion to dismiss claims asserting that a franchisor was liable for its franchisee’s alleged age discrimination in employment. Goodwill v. Anywhere Real Est., 2023 WL 4034372...more
A federal district court in New York dismissed workplace harassment and retaliation claims against corporate affiliates of the Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery & Grill franchisor for damages as a result of workplace harassment...more
Friday, March 10, 2023: FTC Jumped into the “Joint-Employer” Fray and Also Broadened Its Attack on Non-Competition Agreements to Franchise Agreements - If you did not think things were bad enough already between private...more
On June 28, Kilpatrick Townsend’s Marc Lieberstein, Franchise and Licensing Partner, and Chris Caiaccio, Labor and Employment Counsel, spoke to Kilpatrick’s Retail and Consumer Goods Industry Team clients, on the topic of...more
New Standard Contract Language for Data Transfers Facilitates Lawful Personal Data Transfers to/from EU and U.S. - In response to the EU Court of Justice Schrems II opinion, which declared that the former EU-US Privacy...more
Franchise and Licensing Partner Marc Lieberstein and Labor & Employment Counsel Chris Caiaccio spoke for Celesq, a leading provider of legal education, on the topic of whether franchising was doomed in light of the new laws...more
On September 14, Kilpatrick Townsend’s Marc Lieberstein, Franchise and Licensing Partner, and Chris Caiaccio, Labor and Employment Counsel, spoke for Celesq, a leading provider of legal education, on the topic of whether...more
Welcome to The Franchise Memorandum by Lathrop GPM. Below are summaries of recent legal developments of interest to franchisors. Missouri Federal Court Holds Franchisor Controls Sufficient to Survive Motion to Dismiss...more
Welcome to The Franchise Memorandum by Lathrop GPM. Below are summaries of recent legal developments of interest to franchisors. Fraud/Misrepresentation - Minnesota Federal Court Rules that Fraud and Misrepresentation...more
The Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2021 (also known as the “PRO Act”) is back with its laundry list of organized labor’s most-wanted government handouts. After decades of declining membership, unions see the PRO Act...more
Welcome to The Franchise Memorandum by Lathrop GPM. Below are summaries of recent legal developments of interest to franchisors. Fifth Circuit Reverses Trial Court’s Excusal of Area Representative’s Tardy Renewal Notice -...more
Welcome to The Franchise Memorandum by Lathrop GPM, formerly known as The GPMemorandum. Since December 1997, The GPMemorandum has been presenting summaries of recent legal developments of interest to franchisors and companies...more
Hoping to clarify when entities should be treated as “joint employers” under the FLSA, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) recently announced its intent to revise its so-called “joint employer” regulations under the Fair Labor...more
Employees of a Merry Maids home cleaning franchise brought a class action against the franchisee, the franchisor, its owner and affiliated entities claiming they were joint employers. A California federal district court...more
The fight against joint employment of franchisors and franchisees took a small hit when the Western District of Pennsylvania (“Court”) chose to allow a franchisee’s employee’s suit to proceed. In Harris v. Midas, et. al., the...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: There are currently pending at least four class actions claiming that provisions contained in franchise agreements prohibiting the hiring of employees of other intrabrand franchisees without the consent of...more
Structuring a franchise to reduce risk of joint employment and vicarious liability means limiting a franchisor's control over franchisees. This is a challenge in a professional services franchise, where the brand is...more
On December 14, 2017, the National Labor Relations Board (Board) in Hy-Brand Industrial Contractors, Ltd., 365 NLRB No. 156 (2017) expressly overruled the divisive joint-employer standard adopted by Browning-Ferris...more
A federal court recently held that under California law, cleaning services franchisor Jan-Pro Franchising International (Jan-Pro) was not the employer of its unit franchisees. The franchisee plaintiffs failed to show that...more
Is your dispute, subject to arbitration under your Franchise Agreement, going to be litigated in court? As we all know, using arbitration clauses in commercial agreements is pretty commonplace—particularly in the...more
Lauded as one of the most important franchise cases in the recent past, Patterson v. Domino’s established a new standard for addressing vicarious liability issues in California. In reaching its decision that Domino’s was not...more
In recent years, a number of cases have emerged in both Canada and the United States discussing new implications for companies deemed to be joint and related employers. Cases both from the United States and across Canada will...more
The past month’s judicial and administrative activity in the area of IC misclassification reflects the wide range of industries facing these types of claims: communications; cleaning services; transportation and delivery...more