PERMITTED AND PROHIBITED CONTRACTUAL PROVISIONS WITH FRANCHISE AGREEMENTS IN THE CONTEXT OF EUROPEAN COMPETITION LAW

Abstract

The relationship between a franchisor and franchisees with franchise agreements
opens up a number of legal issues in European competition law, which so far have
not been addressed in the domestic legal literature. On the one hand, the EU with
franchise agreements allows the imposition of a large number of restrictive contractual
provisions that would otherwise, in the normal course of things, have been forbidden.
On the other hand, in practice, it is observed that the said restrictive limitations
sometimes are used as a legitimate means to restrict competition and for weakening
the position of franchisees. The goal of this work is, through the critical analysis
of the relevant acquis communautaire of the EU, to provide a review of permitted
and prohibited contractual provisions with franchise agreements in the context of
European competition law and thus to answer the questions when and under what
conditions specified protection becomes a platform for legitimate abuse.
In the first part, there are defined terms and acquis communautaire of the EU,
concerning the subject matter. Then are analyzed permitted and prohibited contractual
provisions between franchisees and franchisor with franchise agreements in the
context of European competition law. In the end, there is a principled assessment
of the situation and there is provided guidance for future developments of the EU
regulatory activities and business practices with respect to this matter in the context
of European competition law.