Food & Beverage

Food and Beverage law

From raw materials to consumer products & multinational deals & local expertise & fresh ingredients & a recipe for success & the best for your business & that’s Food and Beverage with Bird & Bird

A truly international firm & organised around our clients & passion and insight & connecting with our clients’ vision & commercial advantage & where service matters & that’s Bird & Bird

Overview

Our lawyers combine leading legal expertise with a genuine understanding of the dynamics, issues and opportunities prevalent in the food and beverage sector.

We work with businesses across the food & beverage sector from 'field to fork', including agro-science and bio-tech companies, processors, manufacturers, supply chain logistics companies and distributors, through to supermarkets, restaurants, cafes and bars.

We advise food & beverage businesses on a full range of issues that can occur at various stages of the product and brand lifecycle, including:

  • Research and development
  • Production, processing and brewing
  • Packaging, bottling and labelling
  • Employment and immigration
  • Advertising and marketing
  • International expansion
  • Brand diversification
  • Supply chain, logistics and distribution
  • The use and impact of technology
  • Labelling and regulatory compliance
  • Dispute resolution and avoidance

Our team comprises some of the world's leading regulatory lawyers, who work closely with food & beverage businesses on cutting edge regulatory issues and requirements facing this industry across the globe. Find out more about our Food & Beverage Regulatory practice here.

Contacts

Mark Abell

Mark Abell

Partner
UK

Call me on: +44 (0)20 7415 6000
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Recent highlights of work

  • We advised Just-Eat Holdings Ltd, an international online takeaway ordering business, in a £8.6 million venture capital investment led by Index Ventures.
  • For many years we acted as patent litigators on the forefront of the famous European coffee wars, not only involving coffee pods but also defending the world’s best known high-tech coffee capsules.
  • We advised one of the largest spirit companies in the world, Bacardi-Martini, on regulatory/labelling/IP legal issues on its famous Rum Bacardi in 15 different countries.
  • We acted in numerous trade mark cases for the multinational consumer goods company Nestlé Limited including cases relating to the following branded products: Shredded Wheat, Polo Mints, Kit Kat and Viennetta.
  • We continuously advise Polarbröd AB, one of the largest bakeries in Sweden, with regard to commercial contracts, disputes, regulatory and IP issues.
  • We manage the trademark portfolio and brand enforcement for Yum Brands Inc., involving the misuse of Yum's brands in real-world outlets and online.
  • We have advised numerous restaurant businesses on their international expansion, including, for example, the Tragus Group into the Middle East and Marble Slab Creamery into the PRC.
  • We advised Lantmännen, one of the largest groups in agriculture, machinery, energy and food in the Nordics on a cross-border M&A deal with global Swiss agribusiness Syngenta AG.
  • We advised the growing restaurant business Fred's Food in relation to an equity and loan note investment by major supermarket chain Tesco.
  • We work with the US beverage brand Monster on their European and Asian trade mark portfolio and on the enforcement of their trade mark rights via local trading standards and the national authorities in a number of jurisdictions including, the UK, China, France, Germany and the Czech Republic.

Accolades

  • "This was a fundamental deal for me and my company. You helped us to make this dream a reality with your ideas, your expertise and in particular your professionalism".

    Giacomo Moncalvo, CEO of Ca'puccino

Related materials and downloads

News & Events

  1. 2212-2017

    UK: Agribusiness - Getting the deal through

    Nicolas Carbonnelle, Sally Shorthose and Joanna Ketteley look at Agribusiness in the UK.

  2. 0308-2017

    Novel or Not Novel? Commission Draft Implementing Regulation on the Consultation Procedure for Assessing the Novel Food Status

    The new Novel Food Regulation, entered into force on January 2016, will become applicable on January 1, 2018. Among the innovations triggered by the Regulation, there is the provision of a consultation procedure aimed at assessing whether or not the food falls within the scope of the Novel Food Regulation.

  3. 2006-2017

    Health Claims: CJEU confirms a claim can be refused on grounds of generally accepted nutrition and health principles despite scientific substantiation

    On 8 June 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) confirmed that a number of health claims relating to glucose could not be authorised, even after having been found scientifically substantiated by the European Food Safety Authority (“EFSA”) [Case C-296/16 P].

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