This month’s Business Bytes highlights selling a family business, fake reviews, and no poaching agreements.
Selling Your Business That Employs Family. Selling a business that employs non-owning family members can be emotionally difficult, as buyers view seller family employees as a risk. While they may have no more rights or protections than non-family employees, they should be given special consideration as they remain family when the business is gone. Planning and openness with family members can go a long way to maintaining family harmony post-sale. READ MORE.
Fake Reviews. Many businesses live or die based on the published Google, Yelp, and other reviews. Recently a law firm’s case against authors of fake reviews was allowed to proceed as a derivative of defamation law. Many experts though counsel that such retaliatory action may be counter-productive and suggest courteously addressing an unfavorable review may garner a better public response. READ MORE.
No Poaching Agreements. The use of “no poaching” of employee provisions in franchises and agreements between businesses in a similar commercial space is generally not legal. The Illinois Attorney General recently obtained a substantial settlement of a case against two staffing agencies that had contract provisions providing one would not “poach” the other’s workers. READ MORE.
