Competition Law

The relationship between IP law and competition law poses unique challenges for businesses. We help you navigate those to create a strategy for the positioning of your company. We understand that to be successful, any such strategy must reflect potential risks arising from requirements and regulations for offering, advertising and distributing of your products and services.

Our team advises on all areas of advertising and marketing law, including green advertisements, health-related claims, raffles, games of chance, and influencer marketing.

Product-related requirements for product marking and pricing, manuals and packaging ensure compliance with your market entry in Germany and the EU. We evaluate the potential risks you face and help to mitigate them. As competition law is not fully harmonized in the EU, we use our network of skilled local counsels to provide you with EU-wide advice from a single source.

Our litigators are fully equipped to defend you against unjustified competitor claims and to use all procedural means to prevent negative court decisions, including protective briefs filed with courts to avoid preliminary injunctions. We also enforce your rights against competitors before all German courts, in all instances. Our team has long-standing experience with preliminary injunction procedures and has achieved numerous positive decisions for our clients within days or even hours, if necessary.

Another pillar of our practice is the supplementary protection of competition law against imitation of product design to ensure flanking protection to that afforded by designs, trademarks, and copyrights. Here we have represented clients in all market segments – food, sports, fashion, luxury goods and furniture, to name but a few – and have successfully prevented the further distribution of numerous imitations.