The Aims of the Federation

The European Franchise Federation is an international non-profit Association founded in 1972.

It is the single representative organisation for the franchise sector in Europe.

Its membership is constituted by those national franchise associations which are recognised as being the single and most representative franchise association from the countries of Europe which include the EU Member States as well as those countries that are not members of the EU but that are potential members, or that have some official link with the EU.

The EFF is, however, totally independent of any of the EU institutions.

The EFF is the single Voice of Franchising for Europe in relation to the institutions of the European Union which constitutes a political, economic, and social legal entity, and whose policies and legislation equally affect each Member State within the Union as well as countries in relation with the EU.

One of the principle missions of the EFF is therefore to monitor legislative proposals initiated by the European Commission and where relevant, to make its positions known to the EU to safeguard the pro-competitive development of franchising across Europe.

The aims of this regional European Federation are multiple:

1. to define and describe the meaning, mechanics and economic potential of commercial franchising, often referred to as “business format franchising”
2. to set the ethical standards upon which a franchise relationship is grounded between the partners to a franchise contract, from its pre-contractual stage to its post-contractual stage
3. to promote and defend franchising, its specificities and strengths to the European institutions, national authorities and other international bodies whose legislative action could impact franchising
4. to circulate among its members all of this relevant information and to forge together a collective and common stand on issues of importance.

Furthermore, the Federation

1. seeks to forge a community of franchise associations, notably by the sharing of association experience so that each may learn from one another and in particular the younger and smaller associations may learn from their more experienced sister associations
2. to exchange all relevant information on each others franchise markets and its development, including national legislation
3. to exchange the relevant information and contacts so that each association may better service their franchisor members on the markets they are targeting for their international development [1]
4. to further the cause of ethical practice in franchising, in relation to its membership as well as a standard to look up to for franchise associations in formation.

The European Franchise Federation is an active actor on the global, world level.

In the mid-1990’s, it co-founded with other franchise associations including the IFA from the USA the World Franchise Council (WFC).

The EFF [2] is constituted and registered as a non-profit organisation in Brussels, Belgium where it has a permanent Secretariat. Its working language is English.