On Legal Protection Of Franchisees

In practice, franchising as a business model is rapidly expanding. It is significant to the development of economy and people's living standards. At the same time, the legal system of franchise is also gradually improving as well. However, due to the legal property of franchise, the disadvantage position of the franchisee and asymmetry of access to the information, many countries and regions generally establish the system of mechanisms of the protection of franchisees. Though regulations on the Administration of Commercial Franchises and other related laws and regulations illustrate some provisions about the protection of the franchisee, a comprehensive system has not been formed. In practice, the infringement on the franchisee by the franchisor often occurs.Therefore, this thesis studies on the legal issues concerning franchise from the perspective of the protection of franchisees based on the actual situations of the provisions under current laws and regulations and draws lessons from successful experiences from some countries and regions with mature franchising legislations. The author researches on the legal attribution of franchise and proposes to build up and improve the legal system of each phase of franchise including market entry, performances and market removment. The thesis suggests the establishment of legal protection of the franchisee to balance the relationship and interests of the franchisor and the franchisee.Besides Introduction and Conclusion, this thesis is divided into five parts as follows:The first part discusses the concept and theoretic basis of franchise and the necessity of legal protection, which includes the definition and characteristics of franchise on the one hand and the design of the system from all the stages on the basis of the necessity of the legal protection of franchisees on the other hand.From the second part to the fourth part is quite critical to the whole thesis.The second part discusses legal regulations in the process of "join" in the franchise. Firstly, it analyzes the market entry of the franchisor and its legal restrictions and prohibitions in accordance with the requirement of the qualification of the franchisor in our legislation. Secondly, combined with the legislation and cases in other countries and regions, it carries on the analysis of information disclosure system which is the core of franchise. Thirdly, it discusses the "cooling-off period" system in franchise and the regulation of our country. Finally, it discusses the legal regulations on the standard terms of franchise.The third part focuses on the legal regulations in the process of fulfilling franchise, which is divided into two parts, firstly, it expounds the representation of behaviors of restricted competition, and then it analyzes the limitation of legitimacy of anti-competitive practices. Finally, it discusses vicarious liability by drawing the advanced legislative experiences of franchise from other countries.The fourth part discusses the legal regulations in the process of "remove" franchise , which includes two aspects, on the one hand it explains the limitations of contract rescission and reviews the related regulations of our country; on the other hand, it analyzes the obligations after the termination of the franchise contract, especially the franchisor's obligations of renewal rights, repurchase and compensation, the disposal of all the expenditure after contract ending as well as the non-competition restrictions for the franchisees.The fifth part, on the basis of commenting our current legislations in China, proposes that the legal protection of franchisees should be emphasized in our country. Then it brings up advice on legislations on the perfection of the system.