{"id":3819,"date":"2026-09-04T13:27:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T13:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nonzerosum.be\/pre-contractual-information-in-franchising-what-is-mandatory\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T16:11:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T16:11:47","slug":"pre-contractual-information-in-franchising-what-is-mandatory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nonzerosum.be\/en\/pre-contractual-information-in-franchising-what-is-mandatory\/","title":{"rendered":"Pre-contractual information in franchising: what is mandatory?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A franchise agreement<\/strong> is not simply signed. In Belgium, a statutory information duty<\/strong> applies in advance so that the prospective franchisee has sufficient time and information to assess the collaboration correctly.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

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At least one month in advance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The franchisor must provide a draft of the agreement and a separate pre-contractual information document at least one month before signature. During that period, the prospective franchisee may in principle not yet enter into a definitive commitment or make payments connected with the franchise. That period is intended as a genuine cooling-off period, not as an administrative formality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What information must be disclosed?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The prospective franchisee must obtain a clear picture of the principal commercial and legal consequences of the collaboration. This includes among other things\u00a0financial obligations<\/strong>, such as costs associated with the collaboration, and\u00a0fees<\/strong>, including direct and any indirect fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Also\u00a0non-compete clauses<\/strong>\u00a0must be clearly explained. Not only their existence is important, but also their duration, scope and consequences. In addition, the necessary\u00a0investments<\/strong>\u00a0must be sufficiently transparent. Think, for example, of costs for fit-out, IT, training, marketing or other expenditure required to operate the franchise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The economic context also counts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The information document does not contain contractual provisions alone. The prospective franchisee must also receive relevant socio-economic information with which to assess the formula and the commercial risk. That is important, because a franchise agreement can be formulated in a legally correct manner and yet weigh heavily from an economic point of view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Confidentiality can be agreed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Because sensitive information is often shared at this stage, an\u00a0NDA<\/strong>\u00a0may be used. In this way the franchisor can, for example, protect know-how or commercial information while the prospective franchisee examines the file. An\u00a0NDA<\/strong>\u00a0does not, however, alter the statutory information duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What in the event of non-compliance?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The consequences can be considerable. In certain cases the franchisee may invoke the\u00a0nullity<\/strong>\u00a0of the agreement, for example where the mandatory documents were not provided in time or the statutory period was not respected. Where certain essential information is missing, the\u00a0nullity<\/strong>\u00a0of specific contractual clauses may also arise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before a franchise agreement is concluded, the Belgian legislature imposes a strict cooling-off period and a pre-contractual information duty. Discover which financial data, non-compete clauses and economic analyses must be shared in good time in order to avoid the nullity of the contract.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","nzs_testimonials_section_type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-niet-gecategoriseerd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nonzerosum.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nonzerosum.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nonzerosum.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nonzerosum.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nonzerosum.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3837,"href":"https:\/\/www.nonzerosum.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3819\/revisions\/3837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nonzerosum.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nonzerosum.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nonzerosum.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nonzerosum.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}