Morais Leitão has extensive know-how and experience, advising clients in the distribution of food products, beverages, medical devices, sports goods, cosmetics, motor vehicles, toys and childcare products.
The negotiation of agency, franchising and retail distribution contracts raises special concerns in terms of the protection provided by the legal regime applicable to agents, franchisees and distributors, which implies the careful negotiation of the contractual clauses and the careful weighting of the applicable law.
Morais Leitão benefits from very significant expertise in judicial and arbitration proceedings, both at national and international level, relating to the termination of this type of agreements.
Also relevant in this area are regulatory and product safety and liability issues (covering constraints, opportunities and solutions at national and EU level, for each type of product), consumer goods specificities (such as special pre-contractual information duties, warranty periods and additional protection), intellectual property issues (protection of trademarks or patents involved), competition issues (mainly fundamentally restrictions of competition and merger control) as well as individual restrictive trade practices (such as resale at a loss and abusive commercial practices). The importance of our mediation in contacts with public entities is also to be highlighted, particularly as regards licensing, data protection and any penalty proceedings.
We also provide legal advice in the context of acquisitions, setting up of joint ventures, investment projects and divestments, financing and analysis of fiscal issues, (be it taxes, charges and specific financial contributions, or the most efficient and adequate tax structuring considering the retail particularities).