General information about the Franchising Code of Conduct, not legal or financial advice. Dotto is not a franchisor, a franchise broker or a lawyer. The Code and the ACCC’s franchising pages are the places to check. The ACCC regulates the Code.
Read from the Code as compiled on 21 October 2025 (Compilation No. 1, the version in force when it was read on 10 October 2026).
The four routesSide by side
| Section | Applies when | What the franchisor must do first |
|---|---|---|
| 55: breach | The franchisee has breached the agreement, the breach is not a ground in s 57 or 58, and the franchisee does not agree to the termination | Give written notice of the proposed termination, what must be done to remedy the breach, and a reasonable time to do it, which need not be more than 30 days after the notice. If the breach is remedied as the notice sets out, the franchisor must not terminate for it. |
| 56: no breach | The agreement allows it, the franchisee has not breached it and has not consented, and the ground is not one in s 57 or 58 | Give reasonable written notice of the proposed termination, and reasons for it. |
| 57: seven grounds | The agreement lets the franchisor terminate on one of the seven grounds listed below | Give “7 days’ written notice of the proposed termination and the ground for it”. |
| 58: three grounds | The agreement lets the franchisor terminate for abandonment, endangering public health or safety, or fraud | Give written notice of the proposed termination and the ground. It must not terminate before the 7-day notice period ends or, if the franchisee gives a dispute notice within that period, before 28 days after the dispute notice. |
For s 56, the Code adds that a clause in the agreement letting the franchisor terminate without the franchisee’s consent is not itself taken to be consent. After a termination under s 55 or 56, the Code’s dispute resolution Part applies to a dispute arising from it. Each notice rule for ss 55, 56 and 57 in the table is a civil penalty provision of 600 penalty units. For s 58, the 600 penalty units attach to terminating before the notice or dispute period ends (s 58(3)), not to the duty to give the termination notice itself.
Section 57(1)The seven grounds with 7 days’ notice
The section’s heading describes these as grounds on which the franchisee may not notify a dispute. The Code lists them in full:
Franchising Code of Conduct, s 57(1)
- (a) “the franchisee no longer holds a licence that the franchisee must hold to carry on the franchised business;”
- (b) “the franchisee becomes bankrupt, insolvent under administration or a Chapter 5 body corporate;”
- (c) “the franchisee is a company that is deregistered by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission;”
- (d) “in proceedings for an order in relation to a Fair Work serious contravention of a Fair Work civil remedy provision, a court is satisfied that the franchisee has committed that serious contravention;”
- (e) “in proceedings for a civil penalty order in relation to a contravention of section 245AAA, 245AAB or 245AAC of the Migration Act 1958, a court is satisfied that the franchisee has contravened the section concerned;”
- (f) “the franchisee is convicted of a serious offence;”
- (g) “the franchisee is convicted of an offence against section 245AAA, 245AAB or 245AAC of the Migration Act 1958.”
A note to the section says that s 451E of the Corporations Act may affect a franchisor’s power to terminate on ground (b). “Serious offence” has a defined meaning: an offence that, if committed in the Jervis Bay Territory, would carry at least 5 years’ imprisonment on first conviction, or a contravention of any provision of the Corporations Act.
Section 58The three grounds a franchisee may dispute
The three grounds are that the franchisee voluntarily abandons the franchised business or the franchise relationship; operates the business in a way that endangers public health or safety; or acts fraudulently in connection with running it.
The termination notice opens a 7-day notice period. If the franchisee gives no dispute notice in that time, the franchisor may terminate once the period ends. If the franchisee does give one, the earliest date becomes the end of 28 days after the day the dispute notice was given. In that case the franchisee may refer the matter to an ADR practitioner if the two sides do not promptly agree how to resolve it, either side may ask the Ombudsman to appoint one if they cannot promptly agree on who it should be, and the Ombudsman must do so as soon as practicable.
Section 59: stopping trade while the notice runs
Where the agreement lets the franchisor stop the franchisee operating all or part of the business on a s 57 or s 58 ground, by action that would end the agreement, and the franchisor proposes to take it, the franchisor may by written notice require the franchisee not to operate the business or that part on that ground, even while the notice periods stop it from terminating.
Schedule 1, item 17BWhere to find these rights in advance
The disclosure document must summarise the rights the franchisor has under the agreement to end it before it expires, and the circumstances in which they may be used, along with the franchisee’s own early termination rights.
A franchisee’s own written proposal to end the agreement, and the franchisor’s 28-day reply, sit in s 54 of the Code. An agreement that already existed before 1 April 2025 stays under the old 2014 regulations until it ends or is transferred, renewed or extended (s 98).
What happens when an agreement simply runs its term is in the guide to end of term, restraints and capital expenditure.