Federal and state antitrust laws in conjunction with comprehensive distribution and franchise laws establish a very large and sometimes inconsistent scheme of regulation that can result in significant civil and criminal penalties. Such comprehensive regulation creates the need for carefully structured relationships between manufacturers, distributors and retail sellers and skilled legal counsel to protect your business interest and limit liability that may occur while distributing and/or retail selling products in the United States of America.
The Firm’s distribution, franchise and marketing lawyers combine up to date knowledge of the ever changing distribution laws of the different states, a deep understanding of federal antitrust and distribution laws, and basic common sense counseling skills honed by actual litigation of these issues. The Firm advises motor vehicle manufacturers, truck part distributors, athletic equipment manufacturers, heavy industry manufactures, bicycle component manufactures, chemical and biological manufactures and luggage manufactures regarding the distribution of their products through their respective dealership networks.
In particular, our lawyers have helped our clients do the following:
- Establish dealer networks;
- Implement sales procedures;
- Implement pricing policies that comply with federal and state laws;
- Negotiate and document distributorship sales representation and franchise agreements;
- Warranty based claims;
- Work-out issues related to dealership failures including protection of security from sales out of trust and failure to pay relevant state and federal taxes; and
- Litigating in civil and arbitration settings disputes between dealers and manufacturers involving claims of improper termination, antitrust violations and lender liability.