Keeping The Peace Franchise dispute? Try mediation, says New York.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
The National Franchise Council (NFC) took one step forward inits quest to turn franchisors and franchisees away from litigationand toward mediation. This spring, state Attorney General EliotSpitzer made New York the first of 12 states with franchiseregulation to adopt the NFC's education process. Now theNFC's goal is to get the other states on board.
As it stands, if a franchisor commits a minor violation of theNew York Franchise Act (for example, not upholding the disclosurerequirement), the franchisor can go through NFC retraining infranchise sales practices rather than endure an enforcementproceeding and its consequences. "This shows franchisors arewilling to step up to the plate to solve problems and cooperatewith regulatory agencies, whether it's on a federal or statelevel," says NFC chair Morton Aronson.
New York franchisees benefit in several ways: Besides being ableto mediate disputes with franchisors, they essentially receivebetter disclosure documents from re-educated franchisors, and cansave time and money by dealing with the NFC as opposed to stateagencies or the Federal Trade Commission (with which the NFC has asimilar partnership).
The rest of this article is locked.
Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.
Already have an account? Sign In