A number of jurisdictions have franchise disclosure and/or
franchise registration requirements. Field Fisher Waterhouse have
global experience of advising businesses and franchisors on these
issues.
Europe
Field Fisher Waterhouse is a full service
European law firm with offices in Brussels,
Hamburg,
London,
Manchester
and Paris as
well as co-branded operations with Jiménez de Parga in Spain and La
Scala in Italy.
We are founder members of two Europe-wide networks of specialist
franchise lawyers: European Franchise Lawyers
(EFL) founded in the mid 1980s and the European Franchise Network (EFN)
founded in 2004. This gives us full coverage in all 27 EU Member
States and other European countries such as Norway and Turkey.
China
Having advised the PRC Government on franchising, brands and
retail related issues, we are very familiar with the complexities
of this booming market. Partners in our affiliate offices
(Beijing and Shanghai) have been trained by us in London through
long-term secondments. We will soon be opening an office in
China, meaning that we will be even better placed to help
franchisors develop their businesses in this region.
India
We have a dual qualified senior Indian lawyer in our London
office who has co-authored the leading textbook ‘Franchising in
India’ with Mark Abell of Field Fisher Waterhouse. We have a
close relationship with our Indian affiliate and a dedicated Indian
practice group in our London office. We have advised numerous
retailers and franchisors on entering this rapidly growing
market.
Japan
We have completed countless deals for Franchisors entering the
Japanese market. A number of our London team are fluent
Japanese speakers thereby enabling us to deal seamlessly with local
issues.
Middle East
In addition to our European networks we have also formed a
Middle East Franchising Network due to the popularity of this
region and our considerable experience of helping businesses expand
into this region.
Russia
We have considerable experience of advising both franchise
businesses looking to enter the Russian market as well as Russian
businesses looking to enter the UK market.
Our dedicated CIS Business Team which includes a number of
Russian nationals, means we are well placed to service our clients
needs for this territory, in particular addressing the complex
intellectual property issues that international businesses face
when attempting to enter the Russian market.
South East Asia
We have advised a number of franchisors on their entry
strategies for a large number of South East Asian countries,
including Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and
Hong Kong.