Ontario Divisional Court overturns refusal to certify franchise class action in Quizno's case
Katherine L. Kay and Mark Walli
In a 2-1 decision released April 27, 2009, the Ontario Divisional Court allowed an appeal from the dismissal of a class certification motion and conditionally certified a class of present and former Canadian franchisees of the Quizno's quick-service restaurant chain.1
The Plaintiffs, two of more than 400 Canadian Quizno's franchisees, alleged that they had been overcharged for food and other supplies they purchased for use in their Quizno's restaurants. They sought class certification of civil claims for damages against their Quizno's franchisors (the "Quizno's Defendants") for breach of contract and for breach of section 61 of the Competition Act (which, until its repeal and replacement with a civil provision on March 12, 2009, made price maintenance a criminal matter - section 36 of the Competition Act permits civil suits for damages incurred as a result of a violation of a criminal provision of the Act, even without a conviction), as well as a "civil conspiracy" claim against the Quizno's Defendants and Gordon Food Service Inc. and its affiliate (GFS), the primary distributor of many supplies to Canadian Quizno's restaurants.
