Transfer customer data to franchisor

In its judgment of 10 January 2017, ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2017:68 (OnlineAccountants.nl), the Amsterdam Court ruled, among other things, on the question of how customer data should be transferred. 

The franchise agreement stipulated that upon termination of the franchise agreement, the franchisee was entitled to continue serving (certain) customers. For those customers that would not be transferred from the franchisee to the franchisor, the franchisor would transfer all data related to those customers to the franchisee free of charge. This had to be done under penalty of a contractual penalty. 

The franchisee is of the opinion that the franchisor had not complied with this obligation. The franchisor is therefore required to pay the contractual penalty. However, the court ruled that the franchisee had access to the relevant data in the cloud until one day after the franchise agreement had ended. The franchisee could download this customer data free of charge at any time. The franchisor is therefore not obliged to also make this customer data separately (physically) available to the franchisee.

According to the Court of Appeal, the franchisee cannot claim from the franchisor that which has already been made digitally available in the cloud by the franchisee itself. 

mr. AW Dolphijn – Franchise lawyer
Ludwig & Van Dam Franchise attorneys, franchise legal advice. Do you want to respond? Go to dolphijn@ludwigvandam.nl .