As you probably know, and has been widely reported, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 6201, the Families First Coronavirus Act overnight this past Friday.  It will be debated and likely passed in the Senate on Monday, and the President has already expressed his support.  Of course, the question on all of our minds is how does it impact us as franchisees?  First, a lot will come out in the coming days, with many organizations providing their analysis of the legislation.  It’s 124 pages long, so it’s not an easy task.  As detailed analysis becomes available, I will get that to you. A link to the legislation can be found here.

AAFD has given its support to newly introduced fair franchising legislation in New Jersey.  A2682, a bill concerning hospitality franchisee agreements, has been introduced by Assemblyman Raj Mukherji, who is also Chair of the Assembly Judiciary Committee.  Joining him as primary sponsors are Robert Karabinchak and Ronald Dancer making the introduction a bipartisan bill. 

Stephen Rymal and franchise attorney Bryan Dillon will return as co-chairs of the AAFD’s 2020 Franchisee Leadership Summit and Annual Conference, taking place October 14 – 17 at the Sheraton Mesa Hotel in Mesa, Arizona.   The conference co-chairs are responsible for developing the content of the meeting, recruiting top seminar speakers, and supporting this year’s theme, “Empowering Franchisee Associations.”   

AAFD has weighed in on two legislative issues in California in the past couple of weeks.  The first, AB-2672, which will make updates to the California Franchise Relations Act.  This bill was authored by Assemblyman Chris Holden, who also authored AB-525 in 2015, which made significant improvements to the Act.  AAFD is proud to be a sponsor of AB-2672. The second action is on SB-967, which is a bill designed to exempt franchises from the requirements of AB-5, a worker classification bill.

The AAFD announced today the formation of several new franchise associations as chapters of the AAFD. Each chapter will leverage the combined voices of all its members to establish an environment of collaboration between franchisees and franchisors. The four new chapters represent franchisees from:  iTrip Vacations, Amada Senior Care, Code Ninjas, and F45 Training®. 

The AAFD is pleased to forward two comment letters issued this past week by AAFD Chairman, Robert Purvin and the AAFD’s Director of Public Affairs and Engagement, Keith Miller.