Quizno’s, Tim Hortons, Midas, General Motors and
Shoppers Drug Mart are all large corporations that have discovered in the past several years that they have one big thing in common — they are or have been the subject of large franchisee class-action lawsuits.
Essentially, a class-action is a lawsuit initiated by a large group of people with similar issues against the individual or corporation they feel is responsible for their collective problems. In the realm of franchise law, class-action suits have become the legal action du jour because franchisees can group together to try to prevent a franchisor from acting in a particular way that they perceive to be damaging to their businesses.
Franchisee class actions have taken a number of forms.