It shall be an unfair franchise practice and a violation of this Act for any franchisor to unreasonably and materially discriminate between franchisees operating a franchised business located in this State in the charges offered or made for franchise fees, royalties, goods, services, equipment, rentals or advertising services, if such discrimination will cause competitive harm to a franchisee who competes with a franchisee that received the benefit of the discrimination, unless and to the extent that any classification of or discrimination between franchisees is:
     (a) based on franchises granted at different times, and such discrimination is reasonably related to such differences in time;

Terms Used In Illinois Compiled Statutes 815 ILCS 705/18

  • State: when applied to different parts of the United States, may be construed to include the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" may be construed to include the said district and territories. See Illinois Compiled Statutes 5 ILCS 70/1.14

     (b) related to one or more programs for making franchises available to persons with insufficient capital, training, business experience or education, or lacking other qualifications;
     (c) related to local or regional experimentation with or variations in product or service lines or business formats or designs;
     (d) related to efforts by one or more franchisees to cure deficiencies in the operation of franchise businesses or defaults in franchise agreements; or
     (e) based on other reasonable distinctions considering the purposes of this Act and is not arbitrary.