In amicus brief, IFA backs lawsuit seeking to block Oregon’s law, warning it puts unfair costs and burdens on local franchise small businesses

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – The International Franchise Association (IFA), through its IFA Law Center, filed an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit seeking to block Oregon from enforcing its packaging recycling law that unfairly targets the franchisee small business community.

Under Oregon’s Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act (RMA) of 2021, the “producer” of packaging pays fees with the intent of incentivizing recyclable packaging. Under the franchise model, work is split among separate, independent businesses. As a result of the RMA, fees are assessed on suppliers and distributors without control of packaging design or franchisors who set brand standards without data or the means to respond.

“Oregon’s law not only increases fees and red tape on the wrong businesses, but demands redesigns of packaging they don’t control,” said Sarah Davies, Executive Director of the IFA Law Center. “Franchising spreads ownership, brand rules, packaging decisions, data, and costs across separate businesses. A local franchise owner shouldn’t be penalized or buried in compliance costs just because a national brand is on the sign. The franchise model depends on independence and autonomy to reach its full potential, and this misguided law undermines both.”

Under the law, a single-location business can be denied “small producer” status, and the relief that comes with it, simply because it operates under a franchise brand, even if it is identical in size, sales, and packaging volume to an independent shop. The brief notes that Oregon already uses more precise ownership-based tests elsewhere in the same law, so the state had a fairer option available and chose not to use it.

Filed June 15, 2026 in National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors v. Feldon, IFA is joined in the amicus brief by the Restaurant Law Center (RLC), the public policy affiliate of the National Restaurant Association.

Oregon is home to roughly 9,677 franchise locations that employ more than 102,000 people and generate about $10.5 billion in annual franchise revenue.

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About the International Franchise Association:

Celebrating over 60 years of excellence, education, and advocacy, the International Franchise Association (IFA) is the world’s oldest and largest organization representing franchising worldwide. IFA works through its government relations and public policy, media relations, and educational programs to protect, enhance and promote franchising and the more than 832,000 franchise establishments that support nearly 8.8 million direct jobs, $907.3 billion of economic output for the U.S. economy, and almost 3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). IFA members include franchise companies in over 300 different business format categories, individual franchisees, and companies that support the industry in marketing, law, technology, and business development.