In the last several months, “responsible franchising” has become a prominent buzz phrase for those of us working in and around franchising. In its current iteration, it was first used by the International Franchise Association (IFA) to describe a multi-prong approach to reimagine how the federally mandated franchise disclosure document (FDD) might be rewritten in a way to be more useful to prospective franchisees. This effort was undertaken in direct response to the FTC’s increase in activity, its decennial review of the FTC rule governing franchising, and its 2023 Request for Information about the franchise industry. Logically and sensibly, the IFA wanted to get out in front of any new regulations that might come down and, to their credit, engaged multiple entities and constituencies (including me) in that effort.

To date, the IFA’s definition of responsible franchising focuses almost exclusively on increasing transparency and the readability of the information that is currently in the FDD. These are both laudable and necessary changes. I have no criticism for the IFA in attempting to make the FDD more understandable to the reader.