Practice areas
Integrity is the key to understanding legal practice. Law’s empire is defined by attitude, not territory or power or process.
~ Ronald Dworkin
The food industry is the largest production sector in the European Union and it is also heavily regulated. An extensive legal architecture has been established to protect consumers health and the free movement of goods, enabling individuals to make informed choices and preventing food business operators from engaging in misleading practices. Its stringent requirements and the strong commitment on the application of science-based principles make the EU the most advanced system of protection of human health, covering all sectors of the food chain including feed production, primary production, food processing, storage, transportation and retail sales.
This complex regulatory framework is a source of inspiration for third countries in their commitment to elevate their legislation to the most advanced standards of safety. However, such a high level of protection requires a great deal of regulatory procedures and meandering in this legal complexity requires knowledgeable and fully-fledged support.
We advise clients from the food, feed and drink industries, combining creative thinking with in-depth expertise to provide innovative solutions aiming at achieving long term, strategic success.
Dlaw also provides legal counselling to governments and public authorities on the application of the WTO Agreements, the Codex Alimentarius and regional and international standards and economic integration.
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The agricultural sector is in constant development, not only in terms of innovation but also in terms of legislation and regulatory compliance with the aim of achieving food security and stability of prices.
We understand the difficulties of sourcing commodities globally in order to decrease costs, and the challenges for exporters to rank in the European market. Europe’s trend in demand for commodities is progressively increasing. However, competition is fierce and compliance with the new stock of emerging rules is hard to tackle.
Dlaw assists private undertakings and associations as well as governments and public administrations in EU administrative and legal matters, offering fully integrated solutions on issues that confront clients in this challenging commercial environment.
We also offer in-depth expertise on the impact of WTO rules and trade agreements between the EU and third countries in commodity trade, providing technical assistance on issues connected with non-tariff barriers affecting agricultural products.
Our regulatory practice assists stakeholders in EU institutional matters and regulatory affairs. We focus on EU law, combining our know-how in a selected number of sectors including agriculture and food, consumers protection, labelling and packaging, protection of trade secrets and trade law to a deep understanding of the EU policy-making process.
Dlaw also assesses clients on pre-market approval schemes, which are the domain par excellence of the innovative players in the food industry and require in-depth expertise on the EU law-making process. In that respect, we have the unmatched capacity to monitor the evaluation process of food and feed additives, flavourings, enzymes, food supplements, novel foods, GM food, functional foods and protected designations.
We help stakeholders navigate through complex EU legislation and to define strategies aiming at defending their interests in the above-mentioned fields. Our approach includes monitoring the latest policy developments, drafting legislative proposals, preparing compliance programs, training in-house lawyers and providing support in relation to the rapid alert system notifications.
Additionally, thanks to our knowledge of the most important regional regulatory frameworks, we help WTO Members to draft and review SPS notifications and Specific Trade Concerns.
Dlaw also offers tailor-made regulatory assistance in dossiers involving EU and National Authorities as well as governments and national authorities in the South East Asian Nations and Latin America.
