The Court of Appeal (CA) has rejected the argument of a franchisee that it could not share personal data of customers with a franchisor after their business relationship turned sour (Grow With Us Limited v Green Thumb (UK) Limited).
Here the lawn treatment franchisor Green Thumb licensed its treatment method to its franchisees under an agreement that required them to provide monthly sales/other management information.
Grow With Us failed to provide the information, which resulted in Green Thumb giving the thumb down when renewal was requested.
Grow With Us sought a court order forcing Green Thumb to extend the franchise and tried to argue that it could not send the (customer) information required under the Data Protection Act since it did not have customer consent to pass on that information.
The High Court rejected that argument as it found Grow With Us was in breach of contract and therefore had no rights to extend its franchise agreement.
The Court Of Appeal upheld this ruling as it held the franchisee could have sought consent of its customers and therefore could have transferred data as required under the agreement.
Trying to hide behind the argument of data protection for contractual non-performance did not impress the court. The CA did not accept the franchisee’s argument that any provision of data had to be reasonable since strict contract law interpretation in fact said it had to be strictly observed on a take-it-or-leave-it basis and this was not in breach of data protection principles.
