Commercial and distribution law
Project and contract design
One focus of our counsel and litigation services is all practical aspects of commerce and distribution. Like our clients, we naturally take a broad view, so that our consulting and litigation services cover both national and international commerce and distribution.
We attach great importance to security in distribution and sales. Notably, this includes :
- Legally secure distribution structures and sales contracts are not only prerequisites for a sustainable concept for success. Contractual partners also recognize the dispute-avoiding, preventive aspect as a quality feature.
- We support you in selecting and establishing the right form of distribution for you (direct sales, commercial agents, authorized dealers, domestic or foreign distribution subsidiaries) as well as in your day-to-day business (contract management, termination, compensation claims, and the like).
- We support you in all sales-related matters: Contract drafting, including your general terms and conditions (GTC), quality assurance, product liability, and sales training are just a few of the many facets of our legal sales support.
We bring our many years of experience to all of these issues.
In Germany and with our network of experts, we support companies in Europe and worldwide in opening, establishing, and defending commercial and distribution business areas and technologies. We are the main point of contact and support in the relevant legal areas for exporting SMEs, from start-ups to national and international technology leaders.
More than ever, new technologies and business areas are shaped by information technology. Change processes are underway worldwide. Software-supported machines and vulnerable systems, clouds, neural networks, and artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly at the center of new corporate and sales orientations in global service and production processes.
This digital transformation affects companies of all shapes and sizes, regardless of their industry. The Internet of Things (IoT) offers opportunities for networking and communication between machines and optimization of traditional sales segments. Machines used in agriculture or production lines for packaging goods are equipped with the latest sensor technology, making it easier to check and secure business processes and avoid errors.
Traditional business areas of industry and small and medium-sized enterprises, such as mechanical engineering, the automotive industry, the construction and real estate sectors, financial services providers, and the consumer goods industry, as well as fashion and furniture stores and manufacturers, are increasingly facing dynamic changes in the market, sales, and distribution. These changes have one thing in common: they are predominantly related to IT.
There are numerous examples of areas in which IT in particular makes work much easier. For example, it saves valuable resources such as money and time and protects the environment when domestic or transatlantic flights can be avoided because project partners can virtually enter the production site under construction using new “collaboration software.” Provided the energy required for computer services comes from renewable energy sources such as sun, wind, and water, the technology also makes another important contribution to progress as “Green IT” or “Green ICT.”
In many areas and value chains, this leads to the appearance and deepening of further topics related to IT, which can be described as interfaces of this situation. Examples include IT security, data protection, the protection of intellectual property, copyrights, industrial property rights, competition, trade, “digital business,” media convergence, and social media.
We see our role as lawyers as keeping an eye on the functioning interaction of law, technology, and management and proposing legally valid and sensible solutions, providing open and critical support, and negotiating sustainably with contractual partners or opponents in proceedings until an agreement is reached.
In practice—in terms of precautionary law when drafting contracts—the aim is to establish contractual and legal certainty. This means that interpretation and dispute proceedings can usually be avoided or settled out of court in a timely manner.
