engleski

Franchising in the digital era - what lies ahead

Technological development and the use of the Internet have grown into substantial power in distributing goods and services. Different companies took the ride on the wave of change and decided to improve their business using different available e-tools. Among those companies are also various companies using franchising to grow and expand their businesses geographically. To use the available e-tools for franchise system benefits, franchisors need to enforce rules on how their franchisees use these tools. Thus, we need to consider implementing "digital franchising" into the franchise system to cooperate between franchisees and franchisors when their relationship is transferred into the digital space area. The franchising relationship's critical rule is the contract. Changing the franchising into digital franchising is also necessary to investigate the digital era's franchising contract changes and reflect the competition's legal regulation. The paper's main topic is examining the digital environment in the modern global and competitive economy and its influence on franchising changes. Paper presents the current development of e-business (including e-marketing and e-business activities) and changes of the franchising relationship to digital franchising. The paper analyzes how digital business processes influence franchising's legal regulation regarding competition, e-commerce, data protection, geo- blocking, and related concepts. Paper investigates current regulation of franchising in EU and comments the needed changes due to the development in technology and business. In the last part of the paper, findings are presented, and further research proposals about this critical topic for franchising are suggested.

digital environment, e-business, digital franchising, competition law

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