QUESTION
Can we get out of our franchise agreement if we suspect that our advertising department is manipulating our presence is our market.
Asked on Oct 22nd, 2015 on Business Law - New Jersey
More details to this question:
We started our business 3 years ago. As any other business the beginning has been very rough. However, the end of 2014 things were getting better. We had our staff in place and were able to provide service to the public. We have always been busy with calls and walk ins to our center. On average calls to our center were 120 per month and 10 walk ins per month. Starting September this year the calls and walk ins to our center began to drop significantly to 40 calls per month, from which 85% are telemarketers. From 6 calls we get per day 5 are telemarketers, 1 known customer or a new lead. This is affecting our business and the ability to make money to pay the operations of our business. The advertising fee we pay is $850 per week that covers our internet presence. Based on the circumstances would we be able to terminate the agreement?
1 ANSWER
Basically you are asking if you can terminate a contract because it isn't working out well for you, and the answer is no (unless the contract itself provides otherwise, for example if the contract provides that you can cancel if you don't get an average of 80 calls per month.) If you can prove that the advertiser has breached the contract in a material way, you can rescind the contract and also seek damages, but the fact that you are getting less calls doesn't prove that the advertising department has done anything wrong.
Answered on Oct 22nd, 2015 at 12:18 PM