
What is a Franchise Disclosure Document? Key Details Explained
Franchising is often seen as an easier way to start a business. But it still comes with serious legal and financial responsibility.
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The agreement between a business and the agents who sell on its behalf. Under the Direct Selling Rules a written one is not optional: it is a condition of operating.
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The contract between a business and an agent authorised to sell or distribute its products on its behalf.
A direct selling agreement is made between a business and an agent authorised to sell or distribute the products of that business on its behalf. It describes in writing the terms of commission, the returns policy, the use of intellectual property and the other terms between the business and the agent.
It can be used by any business that appoints direct selling agents. Two copies are executed, with the agent and the business each retaining one original for their records, and it is printed on non-judicial stamp paper at the rate the state sets.
Since 2021 it is also a regulatory requirement. The Consumer Protection (Direct Selling) Rules oblige a direct selling entity to enter into a written contract with every direct seller, alongside a set of other obligations: a registered office in India, a grievance officer, a nodal officer and specified disclosures on its website.
The agreement is one of the obligations the Direct Selling Rules impose. The others, the officers, the website disclosures and the registered office, are worth working through on the same call.
Not a policy document, not a login to a portal. An agreement, signed, with each direct seller.
Both appointed, both named, and reachable. Consumer complaints and coordination with law enforcement respectively.
Specified information about the entity, its products and the terms of the direct selling arrangement, published where a consumer can find it.
Promoting either is prohibited outright. Where the compensation rewards recruitment rather than sales, the model is the problem and no drafting fixes it.
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The Consumer Protection (Direct Selling) Rules, 2021, made under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
They apply to direct selling entities and to direct sellers, and they cover the contract, the officers to be appointed, the disclosures to be made, and the practices that are prohibited.
Stamp duty is a state subject, so the rate for an agreement of this kind depends on the state where it is executed.
We confirm it for your state as part of the drafting rather than quoting a national figure, because a single number would be wrong in most states.
Multi-level structures are not prohibited as such, but pyramid schemes and money circulation schemes are.
The distinction turns on whether the compensation comes from actual sales of goods and services to consumers, or from recruiting further participants. Where it is the second, the agreement is not the issue.
At a minimum:
One master agreement, drafted against the rules as they stand.
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