The recent amendments to the Franchising Code of Conduct (‘Code’) made by the Competition and Consumer (Industry Codes – Franchising) Amendment (Franchise Disclosure Register) Regulations 2022 (‘Franchise Disclosure Register Regulations’) and the Competition and Consumer (Industry Codes – Franchising) Amendment (Penalties and Other Matters) Regulations 2022 (‘Penalties Regulations’) have now been consolidated into a further version of the Code (‘Compilation 8’). See our article regarding the Franchise Disclosure Register Regulations here and our article regarding the Penalties Regulations here.
In a recent article, we reported on the release of Compilation 7 of the Code which incorporated all changes made by the Franchise Disclosure Register Regulations. Compilation 7 did not include the changes to the penalties and other changes made by the Penalties Regulations.
On 26 April 2022, Compilation 8 was released, incorporating both the Franchise Disclosure Register Regulations and the Penalties Regulations. For a copy of Compilation 8, click here.
When providing disclosure to prospective franchisees or existing franchisees, franchisors must now provide Compilation 8 of the Code. There is no longer a need to provide copies of either of the amending regulations. If franchisors have provided an earlier compilation of the Code and did not provide a copy of the amending regulations and a franchisee has not yet executed the proposed franchise agreement, we recommend that you now provide a copy of Compilation 8 and require a further 14 day disclosure period.
If you have any queries, you are welcome to contact the HWL Ebsworth Lawyers Franchising team.
This article was written by Louise Wolf, Special Counsel and reviewed by Sean O’Donnell, Partner.
