Franchise Law Blog

Review of Franchise Law Blog   http://www.franchiselawblog.com/

As the name implies, this blog revolves around news related to franchise law.  The site is laid out nicely – each entry has a headline describing the main thrust of the post, and the posts themselves are usually summaries of a linked to article at another website. Though, for the most part, the blog itself does not provide any analysis, the linked to articles usually do.  This is not a site to learn about franchise law per se, but rather a place to keep up to date with the latest happenings in the area.  And given that franchise law inevitably touches upon other areas of law, such as contracts, agency law, and trademarks, the reader gets a good balance of information about various areas of the law.

At the same time, the posts on this blog are so frequent and varied, that it is possible to learn a good deal about franchise law simply by reading about current happenings.  For example, perusing through a few posts will allow a reader, with no background in franchise law, to learn about how franchisees are chosen, why one particular restaurant chain may only want to open chains in certain geographical areas, and under what circumstances a franchisor may terminate a franchise relationship.  In essence, the reader is able to learn a lot just by reading about what is going on in the real world.  For example, one post on the blog discusses a lawsuit against Arby’s Inc. where Arby’s was being sued for the shooting death involving a franchisee employee.  The Wisconsin Supreme Court held that Arby’s could only be held responsible for the employee’s death if Arby’s exercised control over the daily operations of the restaurant and the Court found that Arby’s did not have the required level of control. 

The blog also has many news articles detailing how companies with franchises are doing financially, what their business strategies are, where certain companies are looking to expand and how they are attempting to go about it.  In addition, the blog has current news regarding court cases and decisions with respect to franchises and franchise law. 

One of the most interesting aspects of this blog are the many posts that keep the reader up to date on pending litigation and or disputes between franchisees and franchisors.  For example, one post discussed how certain Quiznos franchisees in Phoenix sued Quiznos, alleging deceptive trade practices and breach of contract.  The franchisees claimed that Quiznos reneged on promises that stores would not be placed too close together.  Another example is a post detailing a lawsuit filed by Little Ceasers against a number of its franchisees.  Little Ceasers alleged that a number of its franchisees are in breach of their contracts for using unapproved cheeses and pizza sauce.

In sum, this is a very interesting blog and should be checked regularly by those with an interest in franchise law.  The posts are frequent, very informative, and given that many of the posts center around companies that all Americans are familiar with, such as McDonalds or Dominos Pizza, those with no background or interest in franchise law will be just as interested in the posts as those that do.  Again, this site does not usually offer its own analysis of events, but many of the links, on which the posts are based, do.  The blog also does a nice job of balancing its business oriented posts with lighthearted posts such as things franchisees can do to improve customer satisfaction and why franchisee uniformity is extremely important.  Put simply, this blog serves as a good starting off point for those with an interest in franchise law and an interest in keeping up to date with what’s going on in the area.