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Before committing to a franchise business, consider...
While 2024 saw more stability in the financial markets than 2023, many challenges arose in 2024 for franchised businesses, manufacturers and retail chains, including bankruptcies of many large restaurant and retail chains,...more
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court answered “no” to a certified question from the First Circuit Court of Appeals asking whether plaintiff franchisees “‘perform any service’ for 7-Eleven within the meaning of [the...more
In the ever-evolving landscape of employment law, a recent Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) opinion, Patel v. 7-Eleven, Inc., has shed light on a critical question: When is a franchisee considered an employee of the...more
The First Circuit Court of Appeals recently certified to the Massachusetts Supreme Court the question of whether franchisee plaintiffs in an ongoing case pass the threshold inquiry under the state’s three-prong employee...more
When a company issues franchises, and the workers (in this case janitors) claim they are not independent contractors and sue the franchise company, can that “relationship” be posited as a defense?...more
Patel v. 7-Eleven, a case in Massachusetts, has been closely watched since the ABC test took hold of franchise relationships in employee misclassification cases across the country. A putative class of 7-Eleven franchisees...more
Past and present franchisees of commercial cleaning service franchisor, Jani-King, brought claims for violation of Connecticut minimum wage and anti-kickback laws, and unjust enrichment. They claimed Jani-King misclassified...more
Franchisors faced unprecedented challenges in 2020. Enactment of California’s Assembly Bill 5 on January 1, 2020 was just the tip of an iceberg. As the COVID-19 pandemic upended franchise systems across all industries,...more
Welcome to The Franchise Memorandum by Lathrop GPM, formerly known as The GPMemorandum. Below are summaries of recent legal developments of interest to franchisors. Given the widespread and evolving impact of the COVID-19...more
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 5 (“AB-5”). AB-5 codifies into California’s Labor Code the “ABC test” for determining employee or independent contractor status, as adopted by the California...more
In a win for franchisors, the Ninth Circuit recently affirmed the district court’s summary judgment in favor of fast-food behemoth McDonald’s Corp., ruling that the franchisor is not a joint employer of its franchisees’...more
The Ninth Circuit sent shockwaves through the franchise industry in ruling that last year’s California Supreme Court decision broadening who may bring wage misclassification claims (Dynamex v. Superior Court) applied...more
One need only glance at the court cases we report on below to understand why some businesses choose to settle independent contractor misclassification cases. Three of these cases highlight the unpredictable approaches...more
• In SuperShuttle DFW, Inc., a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB, or Board) majority overruled its 2014 decision in FedEx Home Delivery and held that shuttle-van-driver franchisees of SuperShuttle at Dallas Fort Worth...more
In October 2017, four franchisees filed a federal complaint against the global convenience store chain, 7-Eleven, seeking to represent a purported class of over 1,000 similarly situated 7-Eleven franchisees in California. The...more
Our news update for last month highlights the fact that IC misclassification lawsuits are happening across the country and in virtually every industry, both in the on-demand economy and in more traditional business sectors....more
As previously reported, the Special Advisors to the Government of Ontario, Canada released their interim report on July 27, 2016 on ways in which the Ontario Labour Relations Act (“LRA”) and Ontario Employment Standards Act,...more
On October 16, 2015, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) concerning new rules for extending the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program for international students...more
Goodwin Procter’s Business Litigation Reporter provides timely summaries of key cases and other developments within dedicated Business Litigation sessions and related courts throughout the country – courts within which...more
Experts are predicting a 95% chance of heavier-than-usual seasonal rainfall this year in Southern California based on the phenomenon known as “El Niño.” Did the California Legislature and its Governor produce a comparable...more
Employers are beginning to learn that they may have far more employees than they think. A driver for the ride sharing company Uber was considered an “employee” by the California Labor Commissioner’s Office earlier this month....more