How to use the Franchise Disclosure Register before you buy

• Anyone can search the Register free and view franchise profiles. Only franchisors sign in, to manage their own profiles.
• Franchisors write their own profiles. The ACCC does not review, vet or endorse the material before it goes on the Register, so treat each answer as the franchisor's claim.
• Profiles must be confirmed or updated at least once a financial year, on or before the 14th day of the fifth month after year end: 14 November for a 30 June year end (s93).
• The only documents a profile can hold are the franchisor's standard form franchise agreement and its logo. The disclosure document itself can't be on the Register (s90).
• The Register's own buyer guidance says to be careful before handing over money or signing documents from a franchisor that is not on it.

The public Register is at franchisedisclosure.gov.au.

1. Open the Register and choose to search it. No account is needed.
2. Search by the franchisor's legal name, trading name, ABN or a description of the business. Brands often trade under one name and contract through a company with another, so try both.
3. Filter by industry division and subdivision to see every registered system in a category, not only the brands that advertise. These are the ANZSIC codes each franchisor must supply (s92).
4. Filter by state or territory, choosing where franchisors currently operate or where they intend to expand. That shows which systems may be recruiting near you.
5. Open each profile and save or print it with the date. Franchisors can update profiles at any time, and you will compare them with the disclosure document later.
6. Put the profiles on your shortlist side by side. The ACCC's information statement suggests using the Register to compare costs and contract terms across franchises.
7. If you can't find a franchisor, ask it in writing why. It must register at least 14 days before entering into its first franchise agreement (s92).

The Code sets the basic fields (s92) and a separate determination adds the rest, each mirroring an item in the disclosure document.

• Franchisor details: legal name, trading name, ABN, registered office and principal place of business, phone, email and ANZSIC industry codes. Check them against item 2 of the disclosure document and the party named in the agreement.
• Years operating: how long the franchise system has operated in Australia. Compare it with item 2(4) and the 10-year business experience summary in item 3.
• Integrity answers: whether the franchisor, an associate, or a director of either has been convicted of a serious offence in the last 10 years, had a final civil judgment against it in the last 5 years on item 4 matters, or been bankrupt or insolvent. Item 4 holds the detail.
• Network size and reach: the number of franchised businesses, franchisees and substantially similar company-owned businesses in Australia, and the states and territories they operate in. Item 6 gives the counts by state, plus 3 years of transfers, closures, terminations and buy-backs.
• Supply restrictions: whether you can buy goods or services only from the franchisor or sources it nominates. Item 10 sets out the rules, any supplier the franchisor owns an interest in, and the rebates it receives.
• Payment before signing: if the franchisor requires money before the agreement is entered into, why, how it will be applied, who holds it and when it is refunded. Compare with items 14(1) and 14(2).
• Start-up costs: the cost of starting to trade, which may be shown as a low and a high estimate. Item 14(3) must break it down into property, fit-out and equipment, opening stock, deposits and licences, and working capital.
• Ongoing payments: what you pay the franchisor or its associates during the term, and what you pay others. Items 14(6) and 14(7) must give each payment's amount or formula, who receives it and when it is due.
• Contract terms: whether the franchisor can vary the agreement one-sidedly (item 17), whether the agreement provides for arbitration under the Code (item 17A), the term, any option to renew, your rights to goodwill you generate, and any restraint of trade (item 18).

Questions on convictions, civil judgments and insolvency became required Register information on 1 April 2025. Treat each yes or no answer as a prompt to dig.

• A 'yes' is not an automatic deal-breaker, but it is a reason to read item 4 of the disclosure document closely and ask the franchisor to explain what happened, in writing.
• The questions cover associates and directors, not only the franchisor company. Item 2 of the disclosure document names the associates and officers.
• The look-back periods differ: 10 years for serious offences and 5 years for final civil judgments. The disclosure document covers bankruptcy and insolvency over 10 years (item 4(2)); the Register rules set no time limit.
• Current cases don't show up as a 'yes'. Item 4(1) lists current proceedings, including some workplace-law cases, and item 4(4) gives the percentage of franchisees in mediation, conciliation or arbitration in the last financial year.
• Adverse answers are rare. Of roughly 926 profiles that answered these questions in FranchiseScope's capture of 19 August 2026, 20 flagged insolvency, 10 a civil judgment and 3 a serious offence.
• Rare doesn't mean irrelevant. The first page of every disclosure document warns that the franchise, or the franchisor, could fail during the term.

FranchiseScope captured 1,187 Register profiles on 19 August 2026. The figures are self-reported by franchisors, and each percentage counts only the profiles that answered yes or no to that question.

• System size: the median profile lists 9 franchisees. 61.6% list 16 or fewer, 12.8% list none and 7.5% list 100 or more (n=1,142).
• Reach: 32.0% operate in a single state (n=1,121). The ACCC's own review of Register data in 2023 found 1 in 4 franchisors operated in one state only, and half had 20 or fewer franchisees.
• Setup cost: among profiles giving a figure above $0, the median low estimate is $146,984 (n=937) and the median high estimate is $400,000 (n=923).
• Restraint of trade: 90.5% say the agreement includes one (998 of 1,103).
• Goodwill: only 10.5% say the franchisee has rights to goodwill it generates (107 of 1,019).
• Other terms: supplier restrictions 70.2% (809 of 1,152), one-sided changes allowed 27.6% (315 of 1,142), arbitration provided for 63.8% (588 of 921), and a term of 5 years or more 83.6% (959 of 1,147).

• Whether franchisees make money. The Register holds no earnings data. Any earnings information the franchisor gives must be in or attached to the disclosure document, with the assumptions behind projections (item 20).
• Whether the answers are true. The Register itself says it is only as accurate as the information franchisors provide.
• How your site or territory has performed. The Register can't contain information about a particular franchisee or site (s90). The 10-year history of your site or territory comes as a separate document with the disclosure document (item 13).
• Who has left, and why. Churn counts and former franchisees' contact details are in item 6 of the disclosure document, not on the Register.
• What has changed since the last update. Between updates, a franchisor must tell you in writing about materially relevant facts, such as a change in majority ownership or certain court judgments, within 14 days of becoming aware of them (s34).
• How a small network will fare. Treasury's 2023 review found three-quarters of franchisors had 16 or fewer franchisees, which means fewer people to call and less history to judge.

• No profile at all, or a profile for a different company from the one named in the franchise agreement.
• A required payment before signing, with vague answers on who holds it and when it is refunded. Money you pay during the 14-day consideration period must be refunded within 14 days of your written request (s23(8)).
• Answers that don't match the disclosure document, such as different outlet numbers, costs, term or renewal rights. Ask in writing which is right.
• Cost ranges so wide they tell you nothing, with no breakdown offered when you ask.
• One-sided changes allowed alongside supply restrictions. Ask what changed in the last 3 financial years (item 17) and how supplier prices and rebates are set (item 10).
• No renewal option and no goodwill rights. The ACCC's information statement warns you may not get any value for goodwill at the end of the agreement.
• A franchisor that says it is too new or too small to register. The ACCC has issued infringement notices over Register lapses, including $59,400 across three notices to Venue Smart in August 2026 (one for not filing Register information 14 days before signing) and $16,500 each to Cash Converters and Mobile Travel Agents in June 2025 for missed annual updates. Paying a notice is not an admission.

• Find every franchisor on your shortlist on the Register, and save each profile with the date you viewed it.
• Confirm the legal name and ABN match the disclosure document and the franchise agreement.
• Compare network numbers and states with item 6, then call current and former franchisees listed there.
• Compare the cost ranges with item 14 and your own quotes for fit-out, stock and working capital.
• Check the term, renewal, goodwill and restraint answers against item 18 and the agreement itself.
• Put every mismatch to the franchisor in writing, and keep its reply.