In the ever-evolving landscape of employment law, a recent Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) opinion, Patel v. 7-Eleven, Inc., has shed light on a critical question: When is a franchisee considered an employee of the...more
The First Circuit Court of Appeals recently certified to the Massachusetts Supreme Court the question of whether franchisee plaintiffs in an ongoing case pass the threshold inquiry under the state’s three-prong employee...more
Patel v. 7-Eleven, a case in Massachusetts, has been closely watched since the ABC test took hold of franchise relationships in employee misclassification cases across the country. A putative class of 7-Eleven franchisees...more
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court just held that 7-Eleven franchisees may be employees of 7-Eleven under Massachusetts wage and hour law. The March 24 decision in Dhananjay Patel v. 7-Eleven, Inc. will have significant...more
Earlier today, federal judge Dale Fischer in California issued a decision after a lengthy non-jury trial earlier this year, concluding that four 7-Eleven franchisees had been properly classified as independent contractors and...more
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) reached a settlement with 7-Eleven, Inc. and Marathon Petroleum Corporation (“Marathon”) to resolve allegations that 7-Eleven’s acquisition of Marathon’s retail fuel chain subsidiary,...more
A federal court in Michigan recently allowed well-known franchisor 7-Eleven to terminate a franchise relationship when the franchisee serially breached their franchise agreement. 7-Eleven’s procedures leading up to...more
In October 2017, four franchisees filed a federal complaint against the global convenience store chain, 7-Eleven, seeking to represent a purported class of over 1,000 similarly situated 7-Eleven franchisees in California. The...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Earlier this month, a California federal court dismissed the misclassification claims of 7-Eleven franchisees on the pleadings, finding they did not and could not plead facts sufficient to show that they...more
A panel of the Commonwealth Court unanimously held that a local Business Privilege Tax (BPT) imposed on fees paid by Pennsylvania 7-Eleven franchisees to 7-Eleven’s regional office in the township was unconstitutional because...more
Oklahoma Chain Unlawfully Denied Reasonable Accommodations to Workers with Disabilities and Fired Them, Federal Agency Charges - ST. LOUIS - Brown-Thompson General Partnership, dba 7-Eleven, a chain of Oklahoma...more
When seeking preliminary injunctive relief to enforce a non-compete, the moving party is often focused on how obvious it is that the defendant breached the parties’ agreement. As 7-Eleven recently learned, however, even when...more
The recent criminal prosecution of several 7-Eleven franchisees, which arose out of a criminal alien employment investigation, as well as efforts by government agencies to treat franchisors and franchisees as joint employers...more
FRANCHISEE 101: Terminated Franchisee Can Pursue Fraudulent Disclosure Claims - In Solanki v. 7-Eleven, Inc., a U. S. District Court in New York ruled that a terminated 7-Eleven franchisee who decided to purchase a...more
Earlier this week, Jim McGrath, writing in his Internal Investigations Blog, posted a blog entitled “Human Trafficking Concerns for 7-Eleven in Wake of Payroll Scam”....more