Retail and Franchising (11)

The full report of the review of the Franchising Code of Conduct (Code) was released Friday, 17 May 2013, by Federal Small Business Minister Gary Gray AO, and Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business Bernie Ripoll.

On 20 October 2011, the South Australian parliament passed the Small Business Commissioner Bill 2011 (Bill), effectively opening the door to state-based franchise regulation in South Australia.

In a decision last month by the NSW Supreme Court in Civic Video Pty Ltd v Yogies Pty Ltd, the Court considered an important question with respect to franchise agreements – when (and how) is a franchise agreement ‘entered into’ or ‘renewed’?

The July 2010 amendments to the Franchising Code of Conduct introduced new obligations for Franchisors to make certain disclosure about variations to the Franchise Agreement and end of term arrangements in their Disclosure Document from 1 July 2011.

The State Governments of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia have recently confirmed their commitment to a new food labelling scheme which requires major retail food businesses to display kilojoule (kJ) information on their menus.

The Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) (PPSA) represents a fundamental change to the law relating to the registration and enforcement of securities over personal property in Australia.