Food Law
Food Law has become one of the most dynamic areas of law because the German and European legislator is driven by food scandals and the concept of extensive consumer protection. Companies are facing particular challenges in highly profitable sectors: Food supplements, dietetic food, functional food & co. offer greater margins than conventional food. However, enterprises distributing such health products have to deal with significant legal uncertainties concerning the demarcation between foodstuffs and medicinal products. Last but not least, the new European regulation on health claims for food poses further restrictions, the consequences of which cannot yet be foreseen.
Our legal services encompass the following key areas:
- Marketability of foodstuffs, in particular food supplements, food for dietetic use and functional food
- Demarcation from medicinal products, medical devices, cosmetics and biocides
- Advertising and labeling foodstuffs, in particular the use of health claims
- Problems involving food additives and novel food
- Product liability cases, administrative warnings
- Importation of foodstuffs, in particular from Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands
- Petitioning and maintaining import exemptions
- Mail order distribution of foodstuffs (e.g. internet, home shopping)
- Registering and maintaining food trademarks
- Drafting license and distribution agreements
- General aspects of civil law (sale of goods law, product liability law, tenancy law, employment law)
