Lorenz – Brussels Bishkek Geneva

Consumer Protection & Unfair Trade Practices

Over the years an increasing number of legislators, in Europe as well as in the United States, have become aware of the vulnerability of the consumer in the modern business environmental and have, accordingly, enforced elaborate consumer protection laws to prevent fraud, deception and unfair trade practices.

Consumer protection and trade practices laws, which can be very different depending on the country, have been put in place to ensure a fair and equitable marketplace, as well as safer products and services for consumers. A violation of these laws and practices is often severely sanctioned and can have serious financial and economic consequences. At Lorenz, we pride ourselves to be able to minimise the risk that our clients run in international transactions due to our network of offices and partner firms which are experts in national consumer protection laws and trade practices within the most relevant jurisdictions worldwide.

We review our clients’ advertising and other promotional projects in order to ensure their compliance with the applicable laws relating to trade practices and represent them in court in cases involving (unfair) trade practices, including distance selling, joint offers, sales at a loss, missleading, disparaging and comparative advertising, refusals to sell, luring away of personnel, luring away of clientele, third parties inducement of contractual breach and slavish copying.