- within International Law and Insolvency/Bankruptcy/Re-Structuring topic(s)
After long anticipation from the franchise industry, the
government of Ontario has finally amended regulations under the
Arthur Wishart Act (Franchise Disclosure), 2000
("Act") to expressly allow a franchisor
to deliver its franchise disclosure document electronically and by
prepaid courier. Once the amended regulations come into effect on
July 1, 2016, there will be four acceptable means of delivery of a
franchise disclosure document in Ontario: personally, by registered
mail, by prepaid courier, and electronically.
In order to deliver a disclosure document electronically, the
following specific requirements must be met:
- the document must be delivered in a form that enables the recipient to view, store, retrieve and print it;
- the document must not contain any links to external documents or content;
- the document must contain an index for each separate electronic file comprising the document where each index sets out the file name and, if the file name is not sufficiently descriptive of the subject matter of the file, a statement of that subject matter; and
- the franchisor must receive written acknowledgment of receipt from the prospective franchisee.
The amended regulations also permit delivery of a notice of
rescission by prepaid courier in addition to personal delivery,
registered mail or fax.
All general requirements pertaining to disclosure (e.g. that
disclosure be made as one document at one time) will clearly apply
to the new forms of disclosure.
Prior to these amendments, Ontario was the only province that
specified mandatory delivery methods and did not explicitly permit
delivery electronically or by courier. The amended regulations
streamline the delivery requirements, and create greater
consistency, across Canada.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
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