05 Sep 2006, 5:18 pm
Green Thumb licensed its lawn treatment method to Grow With Us under an agreement that stated that the franchisee must "supply to the Franchisor by electronic means monthly sales reports and other information".
Grow With Us failed to provide the data and, when Grow With Us applied for an extension to its franchise, Green Thumb refused, arguing that the franchise conditions had not been met.
Grow With Us sought a court order requiring Green Thumb to extend the franchise. It admitted that it had not sent the information but argued that, had it done so, it would have breached the Data Protection Act. It said that it did not have the consent of its customers to pass the data on.
The High Court rejected the claim of Grow With Us. It found that it was in breach of its agreement and therefore had no rights to extend its franchise. The Court of Appeal upheld that ruling.
Lord Justice Buxton found that the claims regarding data protection and the consent of customers to pass on information did not stand up.
"Why could the franchisee not have obtained that consent from the customers?" he wrote. "The franchisee failed to demonstrate any good reason in terms of condition 1 [of Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act], customer consent, for its failure to transfer the data file."
