Green Thumb licensed its lawn treatment method to Grow With Us
under an agreement that stated that the franchisee must "supply to
the Franchisor by electronic means monthly sales reports and other
information".
Grow With Us failed to provide the data and, when Grow With Us
applied for an extension to its franchise, Green Thumb refused,
arguing that the franchise conditions had not been met.
Grow With Us sought a court order requiring Green Thumb to
extend the franchise. It admitted that it had not sent the
information but argued that, had it done so, it would have breached
the Data Protection Act. It said that it did not have the consent
of its customers to pass the data on.
The High Court rejected the claim of Grow With Us. It found that
it was in breach of its agreement and therefore had no rights to
extend its franchise. The Court of Appeal upheld that ruling.
Lord Justice Buxton found that the claims regarding data
protection and the consent of customers to pass on information did
not stand up.
"Why could the franchisee not have obtained that consent from
the customers?" he wrote. "The franchisee failed to demonstrate any
good reason in terms of condition 1 [of Schedule 1 of the Data
Protection Act], customer consent, for its failure to transfer the
data file."
