The Office of Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has completed the most comprehensive revision of the New York Franchise Regulations[1]� (the Regulations) since their enactment over twenty years ago. The purpose of the revision was threefold: (1) to facilitate uniform filing by harmonizing New York’s Regulations with those of other states; (2) to clarify ambiguities that resulted when the regulations were silent on specific issues; and (3) to ease compliance with New York’s Franchise Act.[2]�
The cornerstone of franchise law is, of course, presale disclosure. This disclosure is required to be disseminated in the form of the Uniform Franchise Offering Circular (UFOC), which was created through members the North American Securities Administrators Association’s (NASAA)[3]� who comprise the franchise registration states.” This document is the result of an effort to ease the registration requirements that franchisors face when registering in more than one state. The Regulations are the most important reference with which practitioners consult when preparing the “offering prospectus” required by the New York Franchise Act.[4]� The Office of the Attorney General, which is granted the power to promulgate the Regulations to carry out the Attorney General’s duties under the Act,[5]� has made past efforts to adopt a uniform franchise prospectus with the other in the United States.[6]�
