She Was One of the Best-Performing Franchisees in the Network
- Whelan Lawyers
- Jul 23
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 10
Clients loved her. The reviews showed it—over 100 five-star Google ratings, most of them naming her directly:
“Sarah* is the reason we come back.”
“Impeccable customer service from Sarah!”
Very few, if any, of the reviews mentioned the brand. Not one praised the franchisor or the system. Just Sarah.
When the franchise agreement ended, she didn’t breach her restraint. Instead, she pivoted.
Different services. Different phone number. Different address. Same Google Business Profile.
Same reviews—only now, the franchisee had hijacked the original Google My Business under a new business name and logo.
The franchisor objected. But legally, the path forward was not a clear one.
Why This Isn’t Just a Branding Problem - It’s a Legal Gap
Franchisors often focus on intellectual property: logos, trademarks, and manuals. However, modern brand equity is built on search visibility, online reviews, and local SEO—all wrapped up in a Google Business Profile (or other similar review aggregator sites like TrustPilot, Yelp, Bing, etc.).
In this case:
The franchise agreement was silent on who owned the Google profile (or the reviews).
The reviews related to the person, not the brand.
The restraint of trade wasn’t breached because the new business was technically outside its scope.
Was it a (digital) business asset that belonged to the franchisee, or is it intellectual property that belongs to the franchisor?
The Legal Position
Let’s strip this back to legal fundamentals.
Intellectual property? The new profile uses different branding. No franchise IP is visible. Most intellectual property clauses focus on intellectual property developed by the franchisor or the franchisee—online reviews are neither. If your IP clause has a broader social media or business listings ownership, you may have grounds to claim ownership. Review aggregator websites like GBP, Bing, or TrustPilot do not neatly fall into any of those categories, but there is room to argue.
Misleading conduct (ACL s18)? Possible, but harder to establish if the new business is clearly differentiated and the reviews are of a personal nature.
Breach of contract? Possible, depending on what is in your contract, but many contracts I have seen are not clear enough to handle these nuanced scenarios. You may argue that the goodwill accrued via reviews forms part of the franchisor's goodwill (again, provided your franchise agreement is clear on ownership of goodwill).
Breach of restraint? Unlikely, if she changed her service offering to fall outside the scope of the restraint.
Breach of Good Faith in Franchising Code of Conduct? Possible, but this is heavily fact-driven and depends on answering the questions listed above.
Tort of Conversion? Possible, if you can prove the asset belonged to the franchisor in the first place.
The result? Both sides have sufficient legal grounds to run arguments, meaning you are now looking at litigation territory. In real life, it often doesn't make sense to litigate over a Google Business Profile.
So, How Did the Franchisor Resolve This Matter of the Franchisee Hijacking Google My Business?
Sometimes, the technical legal position is not as important as a practical commercial solution. It just didn't make sense to litigate over a GBP. Instead, they bought it off the franchisee for a sum that was enough for her to let it go and start fresh with her own new GBP.
How to Prevent This
Franchisors can’t afford to be vague about online visibility anymore. Here's how to lock it down:
Explicitly define digital assets in your Franchise Agreement, including Google profiles (and similar), aggregator sites, online business directories, Meta pages, Canva libraries, and more.
Insert clear handover and deactivation provisions into both the agreement and the exit process.
Educate franchisees on online presence protocol and set expectations from the outset.
Add a digital asset policy to your franchise manual, so it can give you flexibility to add further assets to your portfolio as new types of digital assets come onto the market.
One Fix to Rule Them All
Register accounts under franchisor-controlled credentials, not personal emails. Ensure that the franchisor holds "owner" or "administrator" status on any business profiles created online, no matter how small or insignificant the profile may seem at first.
Franchisees can always be given "user" or "manager" status on social media or business profiles, so they can't ever remove your access. You can easily remove theirs at the end of a franchise relationship.
Not actual name.
Friendly heads-up: This article isn't legal advice. It's general information only and doesn't take into account your specific circumstances. If you're a franchisor (or planning to become one), get tailored legal advice from *us before acting on anything discussed here
