Retail

Squire Sanders has long been a leader in providing legal services to retailers and the designers and producers of consumer products, helping a broad range of clients capitalize on opportunities and handle the challenges of a competitive and volatile global business environment. Consumer products companies and retailers around the world look to us for creative, practical and commercially driven legal solutions and our global footprint, integrated approach and broad range of legal services enable us to support them whenever and wherever they need us.

We are proud to serve clients as varied as fashion houses, manufacturers, distributors, trading companies, department stores, single-brand and specialty stores, e-commerce outlets and grocery chains.

We help clients commercially exploit products in traditional and new media, and manage the unique complexities and culture of their business. Our long experience and breadth of practice allow us to provide top-quality service on issues including:

Advertising, branding, sponsorship and marketing Business contracts Commercial matters Corporate transactions, finance and governance Employee benefits Employment litigation and effective management of employees Environmental, health and safety Executive compensation Government relations and public advocacy Intellectual property protection, including patent planning and prosecution, portfolio management, licensing, infringement and dilution, and anticounterfeiting International and commercial arbitration and cross-border dispute resolution

International investment International trade, customs and market access Litigation and alternative dispute resolution including dealer and franchise disputes, product liability and unfair competition cases Mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and other strategic transactions Real estate and property matters, including sale of retail premises, estate management, real estate finance and secured lending Regulatory matters Restructuring, creditors’ rights and bankruptcy Taxation

We have the comprehensive experience needed to understand the legal dynamics of the countries in which we practice in light of our clients’ specific business goals and presence in those markets.

A Track Record of Success

A dynamic company needs dynamic counsel to stay competitive and lead the way around the world. Whether you are looking to adopt new technologies, review the structure of the business or its employees, sell underperforming businesses or assets, or form joint ventures in new areas or across jurisdictions, we can help you surpass your goals and exceed your expectations. We provide seamless, efficient and cost-effective service of the highest quality. Our high-level understanding of the issues our clients face ensures a solution-driven approach focused on enhancing profitability and adding value that is delivered in an easy-to-understand and practical way.

Representative Experience

• Assisting the US operations of two major Europe-based motorcycle companies, an Italy-based motor scooter manufacturer and an Austria-based producer of high-end motocross racing bikes, facing retaliatory duty impositions from the US Trade Representative as the result of a trade dispute relating to the EU's ban on importing US beef containing certain hormones, which had been found by the WTO to violate international trade agreements. In concert with Squire Sanders Public Advocacy, LLC, international trade lawyers in our Washington DC office persuaded the USTR of the devastating potential effect of the duties on small US businesses and their minimal impact, if any, on the beef dispute. We rallied strong lawmaker support on Capitol Hill for our clients’ position, and the USTR ultimately chose not to impose the duties on our clients’ products.
• Representing the US operations of Europe-based consumer product conglomerate Electrolux Home Products, Inc. in various restructuring and bankruptcy matters involving suppliers.
• Representing a food and automotive manufacturing conglomerate in a variety of union issues including strike issues at various subsidiaries and facilities, union relations issues regarding the sale of a subsidiary and related facilities, union issues regarding grievances and general contract interpretation issues, and assessment of potential arbitrators for various arbitrations.
• Obtaining summary judgment on behalf of a leading Italian fashion house against major discount retail chains for willfully selling counterfeit branded fashion products in their stores throughout the United States. Judicial awards of treble damages, contempt sanctions and permanent injunctions resulted in the entry of permanent injunctions on consent and settlements in the millions of dollars for our client. One public record settlement, in the amount of US$10 million (approximately 100 percent of the treble damages and contempt sanctions awarded on summary judgment) included an enhanced permanent injunction requiring the defendant to file compliance reports with the court every six months for five years. Another public record settlement included a payment to our client of US$2.5 million from the defendant’s bankruptcy estate. In another case, a discount chain settled in an early phase of litigation for a substantial but confidential amount coupled with the entry of a permanent injunction on consent against the sale of products bearing our client’s trademarks without our client’s prior written permission. Litigation continues against a former importer and wholesaler of such goods and its individual shareholders against whom summary judgment has been obtained in the approximate amount of US$11 million for willful counterfeiting.
• Obtaining a significant settlement in favor of our client, an Ohio-based national greeting card company, in a lawsuit involving allegations that a licensee was attempting to transfer rights to a well-known illustrated character that has generated billions of dollars in retail sales of licensed products for our client. Upon grant of a temporary restraining order, discovery was expedited in preparation for an injunction hearing and our client was able to leverage a quick sale of key intellectual property to a third party for US$95 million.
• Assisting a global grocery and general merchandising retailer in the preparation of purchase, future purchase and development agreements.
• Representing the developer, a consortium comprised of a national retail chain and other investors, in connection with the issuance by the city of Columbus (Ohio) of US$36.4 million tax-increment financing bonds for an economic development project in Northeast Columbus. The project is an approximately 1,200-acre mixed use development project integrating office, retail and residential development with entertainment and recreation space. The bonds were issued to pay or reimburse the payment of costs of constructing roads and related infrastructure located in or adjacent to the project. We also coordinated the overlay of this tax-increment financing with real property tax abatements on the “nonretail” commercial office portions of the development.
• Representing a household product manufacturer in defense of a complex international arbitration case by a group of claimants seeking more than US$120 million in damages arising from three parallel joint venture transactions in Brazil. Squire Sanders won an initial order preventing the respondents’ ultimate parent company, a multinational corporation, from being forced to participate as a respondent in the case, a partial award dismissing all claims against one respondent, severely limiting the scope of claims against the remaining respondents and cutting off all risk of extra-contractual damages, and a unanimous final award in favor of all of our clients, establishing not only that the they had no liability for the damages claimed but also that the opposing parties had no authority to produce products in Brazil under the valuable worldwide trademark of our clients.
• Representing a food industry association and several of its member companies in litigation claiming that the artificial sweetener brand Splenda used false and misleading advertising to compete unfairly with natural sugar in the marketplace. Our client and other plaintiffs filed suit in US District Court, Central District of California, seeking monetary damages and an injunction to stop the defendants from making certain advertising claims and from misleading consumers to believe that Splenda contained sugar and was natural or more natural than other artificial sweeteners. The lawsuit claimed the marketing campaign for the artificial sweetener constituted false and misleading advertising. According to the lawsuit, the defendants’ false and misleading advertising caused consumers to drop sugar in favor of the artificial sweetener Splenda. The highly-publicized litigation was settled in 2008.
• Defeating class certification in federal court in California in a case involving fraud and UCL claims arising out of alleged statements on our client's website and at various retailers that their pet food products included ingredients fit for human consumption. Using declarations from consumers (including putative class members) stating that they had never seen the alleged statements, we convinced the court that plaintiffs failed to prove that a substantial portion of the putative class had even seen the alleged misrepresentations, let alone relied upon them in making their purchases. Accordingly, the court found that plaintiffs had not made a sufficient showing of common issues of fact and law and denied class certification.