Franchise & Law No. 5 – Acquisition Fraud and Franchising Act

The Acquisition Fraud Act came into effect on 1 July 2016. This includes amendments to Section 6:194 of the Dutch Civil Code. In short, the amendment means that if there is misrepresentation when offering goods or services in business relationships, this will result in an unlawful act. This implies that the Acquisition Fraud Act also applies in the pre-contractual phase of entering into a franchise agreement. 

In this contribution, the civil law aspects of the Acquisition Fraud Act and the pre-contractual phase in entering into franchise agreements will be examined in more detail, in particular the reversal of the burden of proof.