Competition law
From a legal standpoint, not every imitation is prohibited and not every legal infringement is anti-competitive. Therefore, the Unfair Competition Act (Gesetz gegen den Unlauteren Wettbewerb, or UWG) aims to ensure fair competition between participants in terms of both advertising and business conduct.
However, whenever a competitor uses methods which are considered unfair or gains a competitive advantage through dishonest means, we undertake every possible action, such as interim injunctions and other legal proceedings, if necessary, to ensure that the rights of our clients are protected and ensured.
We can provide you with expertise and legal services related to:
- Verifying advertising campaigns
- Monitoring obligations in business transactions
- Conducting website checks
- Comparative advertising
- Food law
- Drug advertising law
- Defending against unwarranted offensive action
- Issuing warning letters
- Requesting temporary injunctions
- Drawing up and submitting cease and desist orders
- Counterfeiting
- Unfair competition
Franchising
We offer expert advisory on franchising and licensing agreements. Franchising relies on similarities with other areas of law and European legal principles and comes under the EC block exemption regulation, as an exception in EU antitrust law.
It is therefore important to take all legally relevant principles into account: antitrust law, intellectual property law, civil law, tenancy law, commercial agency law, European competition law, national and European procurement law, commercial law and general contract law.
Our franchise system set-up services include:
- Establishing and developing of a franchise system
- Configuration of franchise, commercial agency and licensing agreements
- Advising on legal disputes between franchisors and franchisees
- Termination of agreements
- Verification of claims for compensation and reimbursements for investments
- Verification of contracts
Antitrust law
Our law firm offers expert knowledge and provides advice on contracts related to competition and intellectual property matters – for example, distribution, licensing and franchise agreements. We advise our clients with respect to questions related to antitrust law, the abuse of dominant market position and proceedings related to state aid.
We verify the admissibility of distribution and advertising measures as well as advice on government subsidies. We are also able to provide support in the event of disputes related to competition law and with the submission of a preliminary injunction. We also represent clients before domestic and international competition authorities.
We help our clients plan, coordinate and complete domestic and international M&A transactions in terms of competition law and in all matters related to merger control.
We support our clients with their planning, coordination and completion of domestic and international M&A transactions in terms of competition law, and in all matters surrounding merger control.
We can assist clients with:
- Verification of government subsidies according to law surrounding state aid
- Merger control
- Verification of contracts according to antitrust law
Licensing law
The use and exploitation of intellectual property is dependent on the careful structuring of licensing agreements. Individuals who assign their intellectual property to third parties or make use of third-party intellectual property should agree on the associated rights and obligations in advance.
We provide our expertise to our clients to help them structure contracts related to the licensing of:
- Trademark matters
- Copyrights
- Designs
- Patents
- Software
- License trading
- License trading
- Franchise licenses
- Sports licenses
- Technology transfers
- Protection of know-how
Distribution law
Our law firm has specialized in franchising, i.e. the establishment of global distribution and licensing systems for more than ten years. In the field of distribution law, it is necessary to consider which specific form of distribution network is commercially and legally efficient.
We distinguish between commercial agent, franchise and licensing models. Together with our clients we evaluate and assess which business model is the most suitable on both a country- and product-specific basis as well as which model promises the highest likelihood of success. In this respect, we take domestic, European and international factors into consideration, which we combine with our surrounding tax and corporate law expertise.
Our expertise enables us to provide support and advice with respect to:
- Developing a distribution and process organization
- Compiling handbooks
- Structuring contracts
- Carrying out location analyses
- Designing systems
- Conducting feasibility studies
