In a significant victory for franchisors, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court recently held in Mac’s Shell Service Inc. v. Shell Oil Products Co. that franchisees who were not compelled to abandon their franchise and signed and continued to operate under renewal agreements cannot sue under the Petroleum Marketing Practice Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 2801, et seq., or PMPA, for constructive termination and constructive non-renewal.
Case History
The case involves a dispute between Shell Oil Co., a petroleum franchisor, and 63 Shell franchisees in Massachusetts. Pursuant to their franchise agreements with Shell, the opinion said, each franchisee was required to pay Shell a monthly rental fee to cover the franchisee’s use of its service station premises. For many years, Shell offered its franchisees a rent subsidy which allowed franchisees to reduce their monthly rent by a set amount for every gallon of motor fuel the franchisee sold above a specific threshold.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
