The Fair Trade Commission announced on the 17th that it will conduct a written survey of the franchise sector targeting 200 franchise headquarters across 21 industries and 12,000 franchisees.
Since 2014, the Fair Trade Commission has been conducting annual written surveys to assess the operational status and transaction practices in the franchise sector. This year, it plans to closely examine the operational status of the system, the perception of improvements in transaction practices, and experiences of unfair transaction conduct concerning key systems such as prior consent for advertising and promotional events and prohibition of unjust contract termination.
This survey will focus on whether the improvements to the essential goods system introduced last year are being smoothly established in the market. To this end, it will assess the specific operational status of the system and whether there are improvements in transaction practices for essential goods, as well as explore any areas needing amendment.
It will also examine the current status of franchisee organizations and their discussions with franchise headquarters. With a bill in the National Assembly requiring franchise headquarters to comply mandatorily with requests for negotiation from franchisee organizations, this survey aims to support thorough legislative discussions.
The analysis results of the survey will be announced in December. This data will be used as foundational material for planning investigations, evaluating the performance of policies and systems, and setting policy directions.
The Fair Trade Commission noted, "The survey is conducted to reflect the voices of the field in policy-making," and added, "As the identities of respondents will never be disclosed externally, we request active participation in the survey."