Franchising Disclosure Register - Last Minute Expansion

Required information

As flagged in our article on 13 July 2022, Franchisors are now required to provide information to the Franchising Disclosure Register.

The mandatory information originally required to be provided to the register included:

• the name and business name of the franchisor in Australia;
• the ABN of the franchisor;
• the address of the franchisor's registered office and principal place of business;
• the franchisor's phone number and email address;
• the ANZSIC division and subdivision codes for the industry in which the business operated under the franchise operates (if applicable); and
• any other information that is not redactable information that the Secretary requires the franchisor to disclose.

Further information now required

All existing franchisors who are required to register and create a profile will now have to provide additional information.

All the information required is contained in a franchisor’s disclosure document. This appears to be a compromise on the original plan for the register, which provided that franchisors would have to provide their disclosure document – which was met with resistance from many franchisors and ultimately scrapped.

The information required, as well as the corresponding item in the disclosure document is outlined below:

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Conclusion

Whilst the requirement of the new information was introduced at the last minute, all new information now required should be easily accessible by franchisors as it should be contained in their disclosure document.

Franchisors who created their profile early and did not include the now mandatory information above as it was voluntary at the time should ensure this information is uploaded as soon as possible.

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This article in no way constitutes legal advice. It is general in nature and is the opinion of the author only. You should seek legal advice tailored to your individual circumstances before acting on anything related to this article.