What are the impacts of Covid-19 Outbreak in Franchise Business?
The
sudden outbreak of Covid-19 has halted the operation of most of the
organizations around the world. It has been predicted that one-third of the
world’s economy has been devastated already. From the hospitality industry to
retailers; all the businesses are facing huge losses due to the lockdown. Under
this present scenario, the franchise business is also affected hugely. As a
result, most of the Franchise Attorney is facing
inquiries about how the franchisees can terminate their agreement to prevent
upcoming loss.
It is
the duty of the Franchise Attorney to assure the
clients in this challenging time so that they can get the right direction.
Almost all of the affected countries have been restricted to a social
gathering. Businesses like barbershops, restaurants, pubs, bars, nightclubs,
movie theatres, gyms, salons, and many others are facing a hard time to stay in
the trade.
Different
questions like ‘how long we can stay into business?’ or ‘will I have to pay
rent during this time?’ are popping up on the mind of the franchisees. They are
also eager to know whether they have any clause in the lease that will help
them to terminate the agreement without making any further financial loss.
Under
certain circumstances that are known as force majeure that implies
unforeseeable ‘acts of God’; the franchisees may find themselves unable to meet
some obligations from the contracts. They can seek the legal assistance of the
attorney to check whether they can imply force majeure or any other common law
of the impossibility that can perform as the excuse of the contractual
obligation.
It
has been predicted that the force majeure can be seen as the legal solution in
this present situation as it is quite common for the franchisees and dealers
unable to meet the result of significant unforeseen events that are having a
negative impact. Till now, the common instances like floods, earthquakes,
strikes, hurricanes, shortage, and strike are known beyond the control of the
human being. If it can be instanced as ‘Consequences out of the control of the
parties’, then the franchisees may get relief for this excuse of failure.
It
has been said that analytically, the term force majeure covers all the
incidents like an outbreak of a disease, emergency condition to deal with a
business like closure, or outbreak of people like war or riots. However, it can
be also said that not all courts can consider it as the unforeseeable incident
if the contract was signed after the outbreak.
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