EU Regulatory and Product Compliance

We have considerable experience working with consumer and industrial product manufacturers, component suppliers, and sellers and distributors, and we have particular experience with clients seeking to extend their valuable brand names into new product areas.

We assist our clients throughout their product’s lifecycle – from manufacture to disposal – on:

• Product design (strategic and compliance counseling)
• Product launch (market assessment, registration, product liability risk assessment, distribution agreements)
• Advertising (compliance and misleading advertising)
• Aftermarket issues (corrective actions and litigation)

Our Brussels team handles the full spectrum of trade defense and customs issues, including litigation before national, European Courts, and the WTO. We advise on export controls and economic sanctions, provide strategic counselling and training, and monitor local and international developments to ensure that we support our clients’ business needs in this fast-paced environment.

Businesses operating in the EU rely on Crowell’s experienced privacy and cybersecurity team to help them navigate the laws that govern the collection, use, transfer, and protection of data both within the EU and globally. We help our clients understand their rights and obligations and ensure that they are prepared for cyber attack and data breach through risk assessment and crisis management.

Our clients are increasingly confronted with public procurement and competitive tendering procedures when contracting with public authorities or with private entities. We advise our clients both in relation to the generally applicable rules and with respect to their own particular tenders. We offer a full range of services to bidders and contracting authorities covering the procedures and requirements relating to the award of public contracts as well as EU and NATO procurement rules and assist our clients at every stage of the tendering process. Where necessary, we challenge public authority decisions on behalf of our clients, and we advise on Public Private Partnership projects.

We advise both public institutions and local and multinational companies on a broad range of criminal matters. To raise awareness of potential criminal liability and increase our clients’ understanding of their professional responsibilities, we organize internal training programs and develop compliance programs and client codes of conduct. We assist in interactions with regulatory authorities and defend our clients in court when necessary. Typical areas in which we provide services include public and private bribery, breach of trust and misappropriation of funds, theft, concealment, forgery, fraud, infringement of labor law, and offenses related to IP rights (e.g., counterfeiting).

We closely monitor evolving EU regulatory legislation, providing our clients with advance warning of changes to legal regimes and affording them lead time to adapt their product design, sourcing, or manufacturing, which helps them to reduce costs.

Our Brussels location gives us the advantage of proximity to key decision-makers in the European Institutions. Moreover, Crowell Brussels is registered in the transparency register of the European Commission and therefore allowed to try to influence the law-making and policy implementation process of the EU institutions.

And by teaming up with Crowell Global Advisors (our affiliated policy and regulatory affairs consultancy firm) and other trusted lobbyists, we allow our clients to navigate the intricacies of the EU rule-making process and help them to influence upcoming legislation, potentially limiting its impact on their businesses.