Franchising in Germany

HAMBURG, Germany, June 30, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Facts and Figures

Franchising in Germany represents a dynamic business sector with consistent growth rates, totaling sales of EUR 62.8 billion in 2013. Close to 1000 franchise systems with 76,500 franchisees employ more than 525,000 employees in the sectors services (45%), retail (25%), hotel/restaurants (18.3%), and craft (11.7%).

And there is potential for more:

Germany is the largest European country in terms of population, the strongest economy in Europe and the fourth-largest by nominal GDP in the world. Demographic change (more than 40% of the German population are 50 years or older) results in an increasing demand for services and products in the health, senior care, wellness, leisure industries and others.

Legal Environment

There is no statutory franchise law in Germany. Legal standards are primarily based on a mosaic of court decisions supplemented by fragmented statutory provisions pertaining to civil law, competition and antitrust law (including EU-regulations), commercial law, company law, license and intellectual property law, and others. Key aspects of relevant case law relate to

• pre-contractual disclosure obligations
• proper instruction on the right of revocation
• scope of territorial protection
• proper incorporation of the franchise manual
• compliance with statutory provisions related to standard terms
• price recommendations vs. binding sales prices
• non-compete provisions (including post-contractual obligations)
• exclusive purchase requirements
• obligation to pay statutory pension contributions
• compensation claims in analogy to commercial agency law
• obligation on franchisors to pass on rebates and discounts to franchisees
• prerequisites for termination for cause.

Read more about franchising in Germany: http://buse.de/en/insights/franchising-in-germany/

Contact:
Dr. Dagmar Waldzus, LL.M. (NYU)
Location: Hamburg
phone: +49-40-41999-0
mail: waldzus@buse.de

Jasper Hagenberg, LL.M. (New York)
Location: Berlin
phone: +49-30-327942-0
mail: hagenberg@buse.de