I'm not sure you can do this. Isn't the point of the franchise that it's owned by someone else?

For example, if McDonald's corporate opens a location owned by them, can they called it a "franchise" location?

I think you can have it owned by a different company but with the same leadership as the parent. Isn't this how liability shields work? Lots of different LLCs with the same people at the helm?

It is easy enough to define franchise as having different control than the parent. This is fairly standard. In fact, the bill has some language about franchises not being acquired, owned, or controlled by a manufacturer or any entity in which the manufacturer has a 45% ownership interest.

Honestly, if the loophole was that simple I would think they would have started with this.