The Business School BULAW2611 Organisations Law Semester 1 2013 Assignment - Essay Assessment information The information below is provided in conjunction with that provided in the BULAW2611 Course...

Franchising Code of Conduct and Competitor and Consumer act
Introduction
For the purpose of protection and consumers there are many acts that have been formulate in all countries. The following paper throws light on the Franchising Code of Conduct and Competitor and Consumer act, which has been developed for the purpose of fair trading and protecting customers (Latimer, 2012). The paper explains in detail the acts, their functioning and the changes that have been made in their functionality. Along with this some recommendations are also proposed for making a positive change in the acts and improve its impact and functionality
Competitor and Consumer act, 2011
Competition and Consumer Act came into being in January 1, 2011. This act was also known as Trade Practices Act, 1974. This act is administered by Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which is an authority of the Australian Government formed with the amalgamation of Australian Trade Practices Commission (TPC) and Prices Surveillance Authority. The act's main purpose is to protect the consumers by promoting competition and fair trade. This act also aims at better relationship amongst the various members of the supply chain- suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, competitors and customers. This act includes those people that are involved in act of doing business outside the national boundaries (Asbill & Goldman, 2001). The Competition and Consumer Act has established four organizations viz- Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, National Competition Council, Australian Competition Tribunal, Australian Energy Regulator.
Franchising code of conduct
The franchising code of conduct came into being in July, 1998 to regulate the Australian franchise sector. This encouraged the franchisers to work under the expert team with franchising experience. The idea of the act is to make sure that the members behave in cordial and fair manner with each other. This also aims at disclosure of various documents by all the franchisors- a disclosure document, a copy of franchise agreement, and the dispute resolution procedures for the franchisees and franchisors (Latimer, 2012). This act led the franchisers stay in peace by freeing them from the burden of getting prior-registration, they were now only asked to follow the compliance. The amendment in the act was made three times before the final law came into being in July, 1988. Anyone found guilty of
eaching the franchising code of conduct act leads to punishment as per the law.
Importance of Competitor and Consumer act, 2011
The importance of Competitor and Consumer act, 2011 lies in the fact that this act aims at providing equal opportunities to all the businesses i
espective of its size, thereby promoting and emphasizing fair competition. As per this act, a business gets freedom of taking private actions. This law provided the following advantages:
· Let the businesses compete fairly.
· Collective bargaining to the small businesses.
· Protection against misleading conduct.
· Not letting the big players fixing prices for a product.
· Protection against market sharing agreement (Malbon & Bishop, 2006).
· Protection towards customers against unfair trade practices.
· Immunity from legal actions.
· Protection towards customer guarantees.
· Check limitation and prevention of competition (Malbon & Bishop, 2006).
All the above points clearly states the important role of the act for the businesses. This act not only provides protection to the small manufacturers or business holders but also to the consumers. They do so by giving specific set of customer guarantees, which he gets as soon as he buys the product. The consumer can approach the any member across the supply chain-seller, manufacturers, wholesaler, and retailer etc to get the product rectified. The rest depends upon the members about what is basically needs to be done by them to the product (Loewinger & Lindsey, 2006).
The act's main purpose remains the same, which is checking the limitation and prevention of competition by not letting the suppliers, manufacturers and many others indulging in the activity of price fixing, producing unacceptable quality product, produces demonstration model and supplied within unreasonable time.
Importance of franchising code of conduct
The franchising code of conduct helps in protecting the franchising members against each other by asking the franchisor and the franchisee to disclose certain factors and facts set certain set procedures in transactions and dealings (Giddings, Frazer, Weaven, & Grace, 2009).
The main importance of franchising code of conduct act lies in three main areas:
· Making of the franchise agreements.
· Procedure for ending franchise agreement.
· Steps for resolving franchising disputes (Giddings, Frazer, Weaven, & Grace, 2009).
Firstly, Franchise agreement is an agreement stating the rights which one party gives to another party for doing business under the specified system for which the former gets a payment. The Franchise agreement helps in setting the terms before entering into course of business by the franchisee and the franchisor. This also helps in checking the how genuine the franchise is.

Secondly, this also helps in ending the franchise agreements under some...