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Enforcing the franchising code
The ACCC is responsible for regulating the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and the Franchising Code of Conduct.
We do this through education, guidance, encouraging compliance, and sometimes investigating.
Our role is to focus on issues that could:
- impact vulnerable consumers
- harm the competitive process
- result in widespread consumer or small business detriment.
We direct our resources to matters that provide the greatest overall benefit to consumers and the competitive process.
The information from people who contact us with reports or questions, and information from other groups and government agencies, helps us to understand the big issues in franchising.
Types of enforcement action we take
Sometimes, the ACCC will take action to enforce competition and consumer laws. There are different ways we can make sure the code is complied with. We consider several factors when deciding which options to use. For more information, see our Compliance and Enforcement Policy
There are different enforcement options.
- Accept an administrative resolution from a franchisor. This is where the franchisor agrees to do, or stop doing, certain things to address concerns that we’ve raised about their conduct.
- Accept a court-enforceable undertaking from the franchisor, where the franchisor agrees to do, or not do, certain things. A court can enforce what is agreed.
- Issue an infringement notice to the franchisor, if we think the franchisor has breached a penalty provision. We have guidelines on how we use infringement notices. View paid infringements on our infringement notices register.
- Take court action against the franchisor. The court will decide if any laws have been breached.
Franchisor compliance checks
We conduct compliance checks on franchisors.
The franchising code requires franchisors to keep certain records. During compliance checks we may ask the franchisor to turn over these records and use them to check whether the franchisor is complying with the code. See more about how we carry out these compliance checks.
Depending on what we find, we may decide to educate the sector or take enforcement action.
For the type of issues we look at during compliance checks, see our reports.
Education on franchising
If you’re thinking about buying a franchise, our free online course, ‘Is franchising for me?’ is a great starting point.
We want to encourage as many people or businesses as we can to understand the rules and comply with the law, so that more consumers and businesses are protected.
If you contact us to ask a question, we can tell you about the relevant franchising and competition and consumer laws and what help is available. However, we can’t give you legal advice.
Information we receive from reporting or questions from stakeholders, and our Compliance and enforcement policy and priorities help us decide what to do to educate the franchising sector and what compliance areas to focus on.
See Franchising publications where we provide new and updated publications to encourage compliance.
Investigations
We can start an investigation about a franchise system.
We make decisions about whether to start an investigation based on our Compliance and enforcement policy and priorities. This policy is designed to make sure that the work we do has a positive impact, usually beyond a single trader who is doing the wrong thing.