What is dip?

This is a Pre-Contractual Information Document: this is what this dipacronym means

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In other words, a document prescribed by law, specifically in Articles L-330-3 and R-330-1 of the Commercial Code which provides an inventory to the Prévert of information to be brought to the attention of the franchisee so that he can sign the franchise agreement with full knowledge of the facts.

He mentions who is the franchisor, the contractual commitment that he will subscribe to, the market and certain financial parameters such as theprior investments that are necessary to operate the franchise.

They are twofold: first of all, there is a criminal penalty, you have to know, it is often forgotten and there is a 5th class that is incurred. This contravention is rarely put into practice but it nevertheless exists.

The challenge is above all civil: if ever the dip is not issued or contains erroneous information, or if the information is fragmentary, or absent, and the franchisee has entered into the franchise agreement, whereas he would not have entered into it if he had known all the information and if this information had been sincere, then his consent may be vitiated.

The defect of consent is a defect that affects the validity of the franchise agreement and which makes it possible, if it is proven, to obtain in court nullity of the contract, that is to say the retroactive annihilation, which will cause the restitution of the right of entry, the restitution of the royalties and the compensation of the damage suffered by the franchisee due to the pronouncement of the nullity.

It is therefore an important issue to ensure the solidity of network contracts than to have a Dip complies with the law and is complete.

The dip contains information that will expire. The state of the market at a time T will not necessarily be at a time T+1, the costs of access to the concept could increase in an inflationary period, so all this information needs to be updated.

And I will provide an answer that will probably not be exhaustive but which is the principle: they must be updated as often as necessary to ensure their sincerity, that is to say that they continue to be fair enough for the franchisee to make an informed commitment.

So it is necessary to set up a process of periodic verification of each type of information, this is what we provide to our customers.

The law prescribes a period of 20 days between the delivery of the dip and the signing of the franchise agreement to allow sufficient time for reflection before the commitment is signed.

This period is never prescribed under penalty of nullity and therefore the judge, if this period is not respected, will assess whether the fact that it has not been respected, shortened, will contribute to vitiate the franchisee’s consent with the consequences that I have just indicated to you.

If this period is longer, no difficulty, on the contrary, the franchisee will have additional time to think, learn, and commit.