Manufacturing industries

Area of expertise

Manufacturers of consumer goods must ensure compliance of their marketing communications with consumer laws. In addition, manufacturers must be aware of the other regulations concerning market supervision, general safety of products as well as requirements for non-food products and services. It is important to be mindful of the specific and ongoing activities of the President of UOKiK, market supervision authorities (e.g., the Trade Inspection Authority, construction supervision authorities) and other bodies responsible for performing inspections of specific product groups (e.g. State Sanitary Inspectorate), as well as the consequences of such inspections in the event of irregularities. Such consequences could involve an order to withdraw a product from the market, and/or the imposition of a fine.

In cooperating with partners, clients and competitors (actual or potential), manufacturing companies must not disregard the prohibition of competition-restricting agreements (see: Competition protection – Cooperation agreements and Distribution agreements).

Companies with market power should expect a more extensive evaluation of their practices by UOKiK in terms of abuse of market dominance.

Once the legally-defined turnover and jurisdictional thresholds of the Competition Act have been met, an intent to enter into a concentration (merger, acquisition, joint-venture) must be pre-notified to UOKiK and in some cases, to the European Commission for clearance.

Experience

Our Law Firm’s services include:

representation at each stage of administrative proceedings before the President of UOKiK and at all levels of judicial appellate proceedings;
representing clients at each stage of administrative proceedings before the relevant authorities and administrative courts (in cases concerning market supervision and general safety of products, non-food products and services);
representation in civil courts in cases of unfair competition and claims for damages resulting from another company’s violation of the competition law;
drafting legal opinions;
compliance seminars tailored to a client’s needs and business;
legal compliance assessments (audits) of a client’s business.

With regard to the manufacturing industry, our Law Firm has the following experience:

representing a manufacturer of personal care items, ending in partial dismissal (by UOKiK, in an administrative decision) of an allegation of RPM practice. While subsequently representing the same client before UOKiK, we persuaded the court to annul the remainder of UOKiK’s decision;
seminars on compliance with competition law tailored to the work of sales employees of a major appliance manufacturer;
representing clients in concentration proceedings in the pharmaceutical industry and in the manufacture of machines for various industries;
persuading UOKiK to approve a notified concentration involving our client despite earlier concerns expressed by UOKiK during the proceedings (pharmaceutical market).

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