Court of Appeal allows franchisor to claim for loss of franchise business

The Court of Appeal has partly upheld an appeal by a claimant against the High Court's decision to dismiss his claim relating to the loss of his franchisees.The Court of Appeal held that the judge in the High Court was entitled, on the basis of the evidence before him, to take the view that the claimant had consented to his supplier selling certain products under the claimant's trade mark directly to the claimant's franchisees when he was unable to do so. However, until the extent of the supplier's infringement of trade marks and breach of the consent agreement were known, the judge in the High Court could not rule on whether the supplier's conduct had caused the loss of the claimant's franchisees, or whether this had been caused by the claimant's financial status and consequent inability to supply them. The Court of Appeal concluded that the claimant should not be prevented from seeking to establish that his loss of business flowed from his supplier's conduct, but that the claimant should not be too encouraged by this decision as it seemed unlikely that the claimant would be able to establish that, if the consent agreement had been adhered to, he would have been able to maintain his business and survive with his network of franchisees intact.