18Disclosure of materially relevant facts

18 Disclosure of materially relevant facts

(1) If a disclosure document does not mention a matter mentioned in subclause (2), the franchisor must tell a franchisee or prospective franchisee about the matter, in writing, within a reasonable time (but not more than 14 days) after the franchisor becomes aware of it.

(2) For subclause (1), the matters are the following:

(a) change in majority ownership or control of the franchisor;

(b) proceedings by a public agency, a judgment in criminal or civil proceedings or an award in an arbitration against the franchisor or a franchisor director in Australia alleging:

(vi) an offence of dishonesty;

(c) a judgment against the franchisor, other than for unfair dismissal of an employee, under:

(i) Part 3 of the Independent Contractors Act 2006; or

(iii) section 276 of the Industrial Relations Act 1999 of Queensland;

(d) civil proceedings in Australia against the franchisor or a franchisor director by at least 10%, or 10, of the franchisees in Australia of the franchisor (whichever is the lower);

(e) any judgment that is entered against the franchisor in Australia, and is not discharged within 28 days, for at least:

(i) for a small proprietary company — $100,000; or

(ii) for any other company — $1,000,000;

(f) any judgment that is entered against the franchisor in a matter mentioned in item 4.2 of Annexure 1 or item 3.2 of Annexure 2;

(g) the franchisor becoming an externally‑administered body corporate;

(h) a change in the intellectual property, or ownership or control of the intellectual property, that is material to the franchise system;

(i) the existence and content of any undertaking or order under section 87B of the Act.

(3) For paragraphs (2) (b), (c), (d), (e) and (f), the franchisor must tell the franchisee:

(a) the names of the parties to the proceedings; and

(b) the name of the court or tribunal; and

(c) the case number; and

(d) the general nature of the proceedings.

(4) For paragraph (2) (g), the franchisor must tell the franchisee the name and address of the administrator, controller or liquidator.

(5) For paragraph (2) (i), this information must be disclosed within a reasonable time (but not more than 14 days) after the undertaking or order is given.

Note Nothing in this code affects the operation of Part VIIC of the Crimes Act 1914 (which includes provisions that, in certain circumstances, relieve persons from the requirement to disclose spent convictions and require persons aware of such convictions to disregard them).