"Prospectus liablity in German franchise law"
German franchise law is, as compared to other countries, relatively unregulated. Legal rules applicable to franchise agreements are general in nature. For instance, the legal basis for the liability of the franchisor due to the failure to disclose information to the franchisee before signing the franchise agreement can be found in general rules of contract law.
In connection with the breach of the pre-contractual duty to disclose following from general contract law, a legal opinion exists that wants to apply the so-called principle of prospectus liability, developed by the German Federal Supreme Court (BGH), to pre-contractual situations between a franchisor and a potential franchisee. The principle of prospectus liability states that persons responsible for the conception of an investment scheme can be held responsible for the information contained in a prospectus marketing the investment. The consequences of prospectus liability, if applied to franchising, would be that persons involved in the development and management of a franchise system could be personally liable for an alleged misinformation of the franchisee before signing the franchise agreement.
This article analyses the question whether the application of the principle of prospectus liability to franchisor-franchisee relationships is desired and whether it can be justified in accordance with the legal practice of the German Federal Supreme Court. The article argues that, for several dogmatic reasons, this is not the case.