Practice areas
FMCG
We act as standing legal counsel to manufacturers and distributors of fast-moving consumer goods. Most of the work is not litigation: negotiating with the retail chains, clearing promotions and packaging, and defending the supplier's position under the trade act.
- Reviewing retail and supply contracts and negotiating with retail partners
- Developing model supply, marketing and agency agreements
- Legal opinions on pricing questions and lawful price communication
- Reviewing business conduct against the rules on unfair distributor practices, and building competition law compliance
- Legal clearance of advertising campaigns and claims, promotional rules, and guidance for lawful promotions
- Packaging and labelling requirements, and handling consumer complaints
- Representation before the consumer protection and competition authorities, in conciliation board proceedings and before the self-regulatory advertising body
- Sales and advertising law training for non-lawyer teams, and support for supplier advocacy
Describe the matter in a few sentences. We reply within one working day with what we need for the next step.
Representative matters
Standing legal representation of an Anglo-Dutch owned FMCG company and an American-owned food manufacturer, from trade contracts through promotions to authority proceedings.
Questions clients ask us
What can a supplier do when a retail chain unilaterally changes the terms?
The trade act and the rules on unfair distributor practices prohibit a number of behaviours: retroactive charge-backs, unjustified listing and marketing fees, and unilateral amendment without a stated reason. Enforcing this needs the correspondence and the deducted items documented; on that basis both an authority complaint and a civil claim are available.
What should be checked on product packaging before market launch?
The mandatory declarations (composition, quantity, origin, durability, responsible distributor), their presence in Hungarian, and every claim touching on health, naturalness or environmental impact, since those must be capable of substantiation. A promise printed on the pack is an advertising claim in exactly the same way as a television spot.