International Law

Coordination Problems for Lobster Fishermen

Posted on July 28, 2008
Victor Niederhoffer writing at Daily Speculations, has a deft description of the business cycle for lobster fishermen."During the boom of  2004-2006, many lobstermen expanded their equipment and territory and operations. Many new boats were completed...

Legal Aid used to fund Franchise Lawsuits

Posted on July 25, 2008
Image via WikipediaLes Stewart, writing at Franchise Fool, has an interesting observation about Legal Aid and Franchise lawsuits:"This is a first: I have never seen a publicly funded legal aid program used to fund a franchise legal action.Not that surprising that the New Zealand government doesn't want to touch the Blue Chip mess with a 10 foot pole...

Friday Morning Fraud News

Posted on July 25, 2008
Image via WikipediaWilliam Zale, writing at Trade Regulation Blog, has a nice summary of the recent eBay and Tiffany's lawsuit:"Famous jeweler Tiffany failed to establish that online marketplace eBay engaged in false advertising under the Lanham Act in connection with the sale of counterfeit jewelry on its site, the federal district court in New York City has ruled...

Baker's Delight Franchisee Forces National Investigation

Posted on July 24, 2008
Image via WikipediaIn Australia, there is a new impetus to review the franchise disclosure laws - this time from the agency which reviews securities.Deanne de Leeuw, a former franchisee of Bakers Delight has succeeded in getting the franchise relationship looked at by Australia's Joint Standing Committee on Corporations and Financial Services...

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Is That Business Legitimate or a Scam?

Posted on July 24, 2008
Image via WikipediaJohn Tozi, writing at Business Week, has a good article on business opportunities.He writes: "The Internet is littered with offers for home-based business opportunities that promise big profits for easy work. But many of these offers, which range from envelope stuffing to medical billing, are really scams that prey on people's aspirations to work for themselves...

Unfair Conduct

Posted on July 24, 2008
James Thomson, at Smart Company writes about a Franchisor and allegations of unfair conduct:"The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has launched legal action against franchisor Seal-A-Fridge and its director Nigel Rooney, alleging the company engaged in unconscionable conduct towards its franchisees...

Screwed Again

Posted on July 24, 2008
Image by chad davis via FlickrFrom Davis Freeberg's Digital Connection: Related articles by ZemantaMulti-Level Marketing Company Threatens Blogger Who Writes Critical PostNewfangled DRM Even Better At Punishing Paying CustomersDid DivX close Stage6 to duck copyright litigation?Ziff Davis Files Bankruptcy, Gets $24...

Subway Continues to Expand

Posted on July 23, 2008
Image via WikipediaJim Coen, over at Franchising in New England, writes about the expansion of Subway, in contrast to Starbucks contraction:"Don Fertman, director-development for the sandwich shops, said there's now about one Subway for every 13,800 people in the U...

Bad Advice about If Your Identity Is Stolen

Posted on July 23, 2008
Image via WikipediaTom Fragala has a nice little piece about bad advice regarding identity theft, at his blog Identity Theft.Apparently, Tom could not get his post accepted at Consumerist, and so posted it at his website.In the spirit of helping, I am going to pass it on...

When is a Mary Kay IB Consultant a Franchisee?

Posted on July 23, 2008
Image via WikipediaThere are two discussions about the amount of inventory an Independent Business Consultant for Mary Kay needs to start their home business.The first discussion about initial inventory is at Pink Truth and the second is at Franchise Pick...

Stop the Franchisor Madness

Posted on July 22, 2008
Image via WikipediaHere is a description, from BMM, of the perfectly wrong franchise system:"Assumptions:1. The franchisor thinks the franchisees are stupid and can't walk and talk at the same time.2.The franchisor has only one sole-source supplier.3...

Judge Roy Bean - Hang'em High

Posted on July 22, 2008
Image via WikipediaJudge Roy Bean is on a roll about the mortgage fraud and those who enabled it:"Well Squaliforme champion Phil Gramm's mouth finally did him in, which should improve McCain's chances of being elected this fall. In a typical 'let them eat cake' moment, the Godfather of predatory lending and bank deregulation spoke a partial truth - but it wasn't well crafted enough and revealed the mind-set that permeates the Washington lobby culture...

Is ACN a Pyramid Scam?

Posted on July 22, 2008
Image via WikipediaAt the scam.com forum, there is considerable debate about whether ACN is a pyramid scam. One poster cites, in support of his theory that ACN is an illegal pyramid scam, two Government announcements, one from Australia and the other from the Canadian Competition Bureau...

Fraud News for Tuesday

Posted on July 22, 2008
Image via WikipediaI had observed in numerous posting that the 12Daily Pro scam was likely a money laundering scheme - $200 million from Indonesia ended up in the US via illegal money transmitters using the internet.  The money transmitter in the 12Daily Pro was Stormpay...

From a Veteran Dunking Donuts

Posted on July 21, 2008
Image via WikipediaOver at BMM, an anonymous poster writes about being in the employee of an evil franchisor, possibly Dunkin Donuts:"The job of the loss prevention department was to nail as many franchisees as possible for technical breaches of the franchise agreement, terminate them, and bring in as much "restitution" as possible...

Piracy and Silver Bars

Posted on July 21, 2008
Image via WikipediaThe Economist has an interesting take on the grey market, putting in a plug for pirates:"In other industries, piracy can help to open up new markets. Take software, for instance. Microsoft's Windows operating system is used on 90% of PCs in China, but most copies are pirated...

Sneaky Franchise Lawyer Tricks Part III

Posted on July 21, 2008
Image via WikipediaThis is the third Sneaky Franchise Lawyer trick, and I promise you that it is a doozy! The first Sneaky Franchise Lawyer Trick was the general observation that a lot of good questions may not be answered in the UFOC or FDD. "So what is the significance of good questions that are not the in FDD or UFOC? Well, the usual integration/waiver clause in a franchise agreement will block you from being able to rely upon the answers you received to questions that were not in the FDD or UFOC...

Unhappy Subway Franchisee

Posted on July 21, 2008
Image via WikipediaInteresting letter to Bob Purvin, the Chair of the AAFD, posted at BMM:"I am a multi-unit Subway franchisee, writing to you with hope that you will kindly offer me some common insight.  I have been in the dark.  I'm certain I'm not the first who has been at your door step...

Sunday Counterfeit News

Posted on July 20, 2008
Image via WikipediaInteresting recommendation about a law book discussing the legality of the grey market, over at Jed's Gray Blog:"Finding good books on the parallel market is not an easy task. Despite its long and prominent history in US and European legal practice, the parallel market is usually relegated by most writers to a chapter regarding diversion of goods...

Saturday Morning Fraud News

Posted on July 19, 2008
Image by -syko- via FlickrTracy Coenen has a nice round-up of all the bloggers who are rallying to the support those posting critical remarks about Shop to Earn. "It all started a few weeks ago when blogger Everyday Finance wrote a post about the ShopToEarn and ShopToEarth program...

Google committed Fraud?

Posted on July 18, 2008
Image via WikipediaA class action lawsuit in California has sued Google for: "for fraud, business code violations, and unjust enrichment, claims arising from the company's alleged sale of low-quality ads. In the parlance of online marketing, "low-quality ads" refers not to shrill infomercials but to ads that generate a poor response or show a poor conversion rate due to problems with placement, audience targeting, or related factors...

The Value of Franchisee Associations

Posted on July 18, 2008
Image via WikipediaRubert Barkoff, writing at the IFA, states: "Twenty-five years ago, "franchisee associations" was an unpopular phrase. This phrase put fear into the minds of franchisors. A franchisee association was tantamount to unionism. It signified a breakdown of the working relationship between the franchise system and franchisees and a vote of no confidence...

How Lies Spread

Posted on July 18, 2008
Image via WikipediaSam Wang and Sandra Ammod, writing at the New York Times, have a very interesting observation about declarative sentences which are false, commonly known as lies. They claim that "The brain does not simply gather and stockpile information as a computer's hard drive does...

Safedivert New Telemarketing Scam?

Posted on July 18, 2008
Image via WikipediaFrom time to time, some one text messages me on my cell. This is pointless as I delete them all: if you want to converse with me, you can email me and get by my spam filters. If I don't know you, you might want to call first. Markus, writing at his blog Plenty of Fish, has a good description of a new text message scam...

Why Limiting Auditor Liability is Wrong

Posted on July 17, 2008
Image by Getty Images via DaylifeSpeaking of gatekeeper liability, Sam Antar argues, at his white collar fraud blog, that "Audit firms put too many relatively inexperienced staffers on audits to do much of the leg work. Most auditors never take a single semester in-depth college level course devoted exclusively to combating fraud or understanding weaknesses in internal controls before graduating college...

Who Should Help Prevent Fraud?

Posted on July 17, 2008
Image via WikipediaThe outcome of the eBay lawsuits in France and United States reflect different views about gate-keeper liability. Gate-keeper liability is roughly the legal theory that liability should attach not only the person carrying out the fraud but those who innocently enable and negligently supervise the fraudsters...

Franchises: The biggest risk of your life?

Posted on July 17, 2008
Image by lakerae via FlickrPeter Singler, a franchise attorney in California, who is also counsel to the Culligan Distributors has some very interesting observations about franchises. Who is Peter? Apart from the former Chair of the American Franchisee Association...

Shop To Earn

Posted on July 17, 2008
Image via WikipediaTracy Coenen, writing at her blog the Fraud Files, has asked for support for a blogger and herself who have written about Shop to Earn's business model. Tracy summarizes the problem with Shop to Earn in the following way: "I am going to look into this company more and write up some of my thoughts...

Blood in the water?

Posted on July 16, 2008
Jason Gehkre, writing at Smart Money, has an interesting view about the new franchise enquiry in Australia. "The inquiry's terms of reference are: "To inquire and report on the operation of the Franchising Code of Conduct, and to identify, where justified, improvements to the Code, with particular reference to: The nature of the franchising industry, including the rights of both franchisors and franchisees...

The Gray Blog: eBay wins against Tiffany's

Posted on July 16, 2008
eBay lost in France; eBay won in the US. As summarized by Jorge Espinosa, writing at the Grey Blog, "After a devastating ruling from a French Court, reported previously in the Gray Blog, and a user revolt over terms of payment, E-Bay has finally received some good news...

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