Indiana Securities Commissioner Bradley Skolnick has issued a special exemption to the registration and disclosure requirements of the Indiana Franchise Disclosure Law for certain franchisors which offer their franchises on the Internet. The exemption is only applicable if the offer indicates that the franchise will not be sold to Indiana residents, that the offer is not otherwise specifically directed to an Indiana resident, and that no sales of the franchises are made in Indiana as a result of the offer.

Clearly, Commissioner Skolnick believes that, without the exemption, unregistered franchise sales promotions on the Internet violate Indiana law. Since the vast majority of franchisors throughout the United States have established websites, one must consider whether those franchisors which are not registered nationwide are unwittingly in violation of the franchise and business opportunity laws of the many other states that have such laws but which offer no exemption.