Franchise Registration Laws: Some States are Tougher

As you may already know, the Federal Trade Commission regulates the Franchise industry. The required set of disclosures mandated by the FTC to offer the sale of Franchises are collectively known as the "UFOC." These Federal guidelines were last revised May 07, 2007. Once the UFOC has been drafted and reviewed by a Franchise attorney, then you must register it in the different State you wish to offer Franchises. Offering the sale of Franchises without registering the UFOC is illegal and will result in much grief, including fines, litigation and sanctions.

Most States are painless when it comes to registering your UFOC -- we will call those "Non-registration states." In these States it may be as simple as complying with their business opportunity laws, sending in a fee along with your UFOC and you're done.

There are fourteen States that take a stricter approach to approving Franchises. This simply means that the documents are further scrutinized in an attempt to protect the buyer and prevent fraud. We will refer to these States as "Registration States."

Registration Sates are:

California