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.

Представницький досвід

• Representing a leading manufacturer and marketer of consumer products in its acquisition of bleach businesses in Canada, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Uruguay and Venezuela from a global leader in cleaning products for an aggregate price of US$126 million plus inventory at cost at closing. The transaction included sale of three bleach brands in Canada, Uruguay and Venezuela and the license of a fourth brand in Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Ecuador during a transition period.
• Advising a US-based retailer regarding the terms of gift cards issued by its stores in Germany including the German-language terms printed on the reverse side of the gift cards, legal analysis of issuing such gift cards under German law and the drafting of the terms and conditions of the gift cards under German law.
• Representing a national US-based retailer in class action litigation involving allegations that our client misled consumers by designating certain clothes dryers as "stainless steel" when portions of the dryers' drums were not in fact constructed of stainless steel. In 2008 the Seventh Circuit ordered decertification of a class of hundreds of thousands of consumers in 29 different jurisdictions. On remand plaintiff declined our offer of judgment, and the district court subsequently granted our motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The dismissal was affirmed on appeal in 2010. This case is particularly notable because it is perhaps the only case where a party persuaded a district court to dismiss based on an offer of judgment inclusive of attorneys’ fees.
• Advising a leading manufacturer of audio, video, communications and information technology products for the consumers and professionals in the construction and leasing of its new US$220 million headquarters in San Diego, California.
• Representing a major Japan-based confectionery producer in its acquisition of chocolate and sugar confectionary operations in Warsaw from Kraft Foods.
• Defending a national retailer against a product liability class action filed in Nevada state court and removed to federal court under the Class Action Fairness Act, alleging that certain pet food products were falsely labeled "Made in USA" when, in fact, some ingredients came from abroad. The court granted our preemptive motion to deny class certification, finding that individual questions about causation, reliance and damages predominated, the differences among the various states' laws defeated superiority, and the class could not be certified as a matter of law.
• Advising a Canada-based, publicly listed manufacturer of juices and specialty foods on its US$414 million acquisition of a US-based, privately owned manufacturer of fruit juices. In connection with the acquisition, we assisted on debt financing of US$280 million, which consisted of a US$50 million revolving credit facility and a US$230 million term loan in a three-tiered “double-dip” structure involving loans by US lenders, a Quebec lender and a Luxembourg lender.
• Serving as tax counsel in Electrolux Home Products, Inc.'s US$3.8 billion spinoff of its wholly owned outdoor products subsidiary as a separate unit and distribution of its shares to its shareholders. Under the so-called Lex ASEA rules, the share distribution was exempt from tax in Sweden, both for our client and its shareholders there. The shares of the spinoff unit were then subject to trading on the O-list of the Stockholm Stock Exchange.
• Advising the international holding company of an athletic-shoe producer in its US$363.9 million IPO. The shares initially offered under the international placing were fully subscribed, with 200 million new shares offered through the company's IPO, including 90 percent for international placing and 10 percent for Hong Kong public offering.
• Advising Europe's leading specialist retailer of PC and video game products in connection with the acquisition of 100 percent equity interest in a premium Czech Republic-based PC and video game designer and retailer.