"Cooperative" means a for-profit organization owned and operated, or a nonprofit organization operated, by the wholesale or retail members it serves. A cooperative that operates as, or subsequently purchases, a franchise system must register that system under the Franchise Disclosure Act if the system franchisees are not members of the cooperative with control relatively equal to the other cooperative members.

(Source: Added at 23 Ill. Reg. 11561, effective September 7, 1999)