This Tuesday, May 30th, our Firm engaged in the formation of an important precedent by the Court of Appeals of Paraná, relating to franchise agreements. The case involves a claim filed by former franchisees against the franchisor (a chain of restaurants in Paraná), in which they maintained that, even after the termination of the franchise agreement and the sale of assets to the franchisor, it would be possible to revise the amount of the adjustment between the parties, under the grounds that the estimating and setting of the price was defective, especially since it did not include the restaurants’ goodwill.
The 19th Civil Chamber unanimously voted to dismiss the appeal. According to the Rapporteur, everything that would characterize the intangible portion of franchise operations (the brand, the concept, the know-how, etc.) is owned by the franchisor, and there were no intangible assets left to indemnify the former franchisees. Furthermore, and as in fact happened in the specific case, the contract for the purchase and sale of assets had been agreed upon by businessmen duly accompanied by their lawyers – and therefore no defect in consent capable of allowing the revision of the agreement could be claimed.
Partners Evaristo Aragão Santos and Daniela Peretti D'Ávila were in charge of the case, the latter having rendered oral arguments defending the winning arguments.
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