Handling product liability claims

We recently assisted a client in handling 30,000 complaints that they had received from customers who had purchased fuel from their stores and whose vehicles had subsequently broken down. To assist our clients' response team and ensure they could handle the claims quickly and efficiently, we helped to design a response plan and supporting materials. We also helped develop a process whereby they were able to quickly distinguish between meritorious and unmeritorious claims and to pay out on the former promptly and in full. Throughout the process, we worked closely with the client's claims handlers and loss adjusters.

We advised our client on their legal obligations in relation to product safety and quality, but also more generally on crisis management, including their media response. We also advised on, and managed, upstream litigation and settlement negotiations. Our client was able to recover substantial costs from the contaminated fuel supplier and was also able to deal swiftly with any potential negative impact on their brand.

Managing complex deals

We are currently advising Sara Lee on all legal aspects of the disposal of its worldwide household and body care businesses, which include brands such as Sanex, Radox, Duschdas and Ambi Pur. In order to deliver maximum value to Sara Lee the deal was structured in such a way that each key business division was dealt with as a separate sale. This introduced separation issues which we gave careful consideration to.

Acting as a global network we worked closely with Sara Lee's local teams in over 35 jurisdictions. We helped to structure the businesses appropriately so they were ready for selling to the various buyers. This included setting up transitional manufacturing, distribution and licensing arrangements as well as amending existing agreements and managing parallel negotiations with multiple bidders for multiple businesses. Our team of consumer products experts was drawn together from our M&A, IP, commercial, antitrust, employment, real estate and tax groups.

‘...their organization skills and tenacity were superb, and critical to...getting the deal finished on the IP front’.
Chief IP Counsel, Sara Lee

Dealing with counterfeit goods

When one of our international personal care clients identified a counterfeit product being imported into the UK, they came to us for urgent legal advice. They were at risk of the product being sold to consumers and needed quickly to manage their communication with retailers and to deal with the counterfeit suppliers.

To support our client in the most effective way we provided a multi-discipline team drawing on our IP, product liability and antitrust lawyers. We helped to make sure that all communication with retailers was well-managed and took into account the retailers' exposure to product liability laws and trade mark infringement. We ensured that the product was taken off the shelves quickly (at no cost to our client), that it had the right PR support and that it was done in a way that captured evidence of the infringement.

We also worked with our client's UK and international team to formulate a strategy for pursuing the key infringing suppliers, taking into account both civil and criminal proceedings. We provided advice on the legal options in the UK, the Middle East and the People's Republic of China (the counterfeit product's route to market).

Retail insolvency

We advised Woolworths Group on various rescue and restructuring options in the lead-up to its administration (the largest retail administration in UK history). Following the administration, we have been advising Deloitte, as administrators of Woolworths' distribution arm Entertainment UK Limited (EUK), on a wide range of issues. We provided advice on disputes over retention of title claims by suppliers of goods to EUK and stock ownership and debt issues with its downstream customers such as supermarkets and retailers. In addition, we advised EUK on various issues arising from the subsequent administration of Zavvi Entertainment Group which was forced into administration a few weeks after Woolworths' demise, due to its heavy dependence on supply from EUK.

Handling competition issues

Increasingly, in UK retail markets, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is using Geographic Information Systems to map local markets and consumer surveys to understand the degree of switching between stores, and the extent of those markets. One of our retail clients wanted to be able to second-guess the likely OFT conclusions in the context of a merger. Using our expertise in this technical area we were able to guide the client in predicting how the OFT would define the geographic extent of retail markets. We also identified which other parameters it would use to analyse local competition, as a result of which the client was forearmed as to the likely areas of focus by the regulator.

We have also worked with the same retailer to provide advice on its relationships with suppliers, and the relevance of competition law to price setting, rebates, information sharing and the relative bargaining power of the parties (including the application of the European Commission's vertical block exemption). Moreover, our experience of the different approaches adopted by retailers in working within the planning regime meant that we were able to provide advice on the potential interface between land acquisition, the UK planning regime and competition law at a local level.

Getting it right: product recall in the EU

Is your product safe? New Guidance published by the European Commission (February 2010)
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Briefings

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Awards

Private equity deal of the year - International Financial Law Review: European Awards, Deals of the Year (2008)

Dispute Resolution Team of the Year - Legal Business Awards (2007)

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