A federal court in Minnesota recently granted Toro’s motion for a preliminary injunction against two former employees, while dismissing their new employer, a Canadian manufacturer, for lack of personal jurisdiction. The Toro Co. v. Sutterlin, 2024 WL 965238 (D. Minn. Mar. 5, 2024).

In a dispute between Audi and two dealers, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s conclusion that one dealer’s obligation in a consent decree to “forever quit” its interest in purchasing an Audi dealership survived termination of the litigation and the dissolution of a preliminary injunction and was enforceable. Audi of Am., Inc. v. Bronsberg & Hughes Pontiac, Inc., No. 20-2940, 2021 WL 5320848 (3d Cir. Nov. 16, 2021) (designated as non-precedential).

A federal court in Ohio denied an area representative’s request to enjoin the nonrenewal or termination of two of its area representative agreements. KAM Development, LLC v. Marco’s Franchising, LLC, 2020 WL 6146482 (N.D. Ohio Oct. 10, 2020). In 2010, Marco’s granted KAM two area representative agreements in which KAM agreed to solicit potential franchisees and service existing franchisees in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Columbia, South Carolina, for ten years. Each agreement provided up to four renewal periods of five years each, so long as KAM satisfied certain ...

A federal court in Washington has granted a preliminary injunction against a terminated tax preparation services franchisee, preventing it from operating a competing business and soliciting the franchisor’s customers. JTH Tax LLC (d/b/a Liberty Tax Service) v. McHugh, 2020 WL 1689731 (W.D. Wash. Apr. 7, 2020). Plaintiffs Liberty Tax Service and SiempreTax+ operate thousands of tax preparation service centers nationally. Defendant Lorraine McHugh entered into a Liberty Tax Franchise Agreement in 2015, and ultimately operated the franchise through her business KVC. By ...

A federal court in Maryland recently granted a franchisor default judgment and awarded it a permanent injunction and attorneys’ fees under the Lanham Act, against a holdover franchisee that failed to respond to a lawsuit. ICENY USA, LLC v. M&M’s LLC, 2020 WL 1890511 (D. Md. Apr. 16, 2020). ICENY is the franchisor of Thai ice cream roll shops, and M&M was an ICENY franchisee in Yuma, Arizona. ICENY terminated the franchise agreement after M&M failed to pay various required fees. Following termination, M&M did not comply with its post-termination obligations, and ICENY filed suit in ...