Consumer Goods Production

Production of consumer goods is a backbone component of the Russian economy. It includes large diversified branches of light and heavy industries, mechanical engineering and a number of other important branches.

Many of these industries are facing the need to develop effective and transparent operational and control structures, especially after the Russian economy has joined the WTO. Many companies are facing the issue of entering into strategic merger and acquisition transactions in order to secure future growth opportunities, improve business effectiveness and achieve competitive advantages on the market.

The experts of our Law Firm have a substantial experience in supporting industrial clients in Russia. We help create, develop, restructure and protect the manufacturer.

Industry Specific Consulting:

  • Consulting in the sphere of antimonopoly laws; 
  • Consulting in industrial regulation and enterprise licencing; 
  • Consulting in contractual law, elaboration of internal procedures for contracts approval, preparation of standard commercial contracts (delivery, independent work, service, lease and loan contracts, etc.); 
  • Supporting major transactions on equipment delivery and installation (EPC contracts); 
  • Consulting in consumer protection and producer’s liability; 
  • Checking company’s marketing policies and individual promotional events and other advertising actions in terms of their compliance with  advertising laws; 
  • Structuring and implementation of effective management of intellectual property, implementation of multi-level protection of company’s key products, suppression of unfair competition, supporting disputes in administrative bodies and courts; 
  • Environmental protection issues throughout all stages of product life.

Corporate Consulting, Transactions and Investment Projects Support:

  • Supporting transactions on sale/acquisition of shares in companies operating as manufacturers of consumer goods, or undertaken in order to bring in financial investors (M&A); 
  • Legal and tax due diligence checks of businesses in the manufacturing sector on request from potential buyers/investors or current business owners, and specifically for the purpose of entering public capital market; 
  • Supporting investment projects to create new production assets or modify existing production assets, and specifically elaboration of contractual structures, preparation of investment agreements, partnership initiatives agreements, subcontractors agreements and other agreements; 
  • Elaboration of effective ownership and management target structures, and operational structures for company groups operating in the above sphere, in order to reduce risks and increase assets protection; 
  • Preparation of corporate agreements between enterprise owners, and corporate agreements with investors; 
  • Preparation of documents regulating corporate management within the company/group of companies (corporate ethics codes, regulations on management bodies, regulations on committees of the board of directors, etc.).

Support during Commercial Disputes in Courts and International Arbitration Institutions:

  • Representation of manufacturers during disputes with suppliers of raw materials and components regarding defaults on obligations under supply or service agreements; 
  • Representation of manufacturers’ interests in disputes with distributors and retail networks; 
  • Representation of manufacturers in disputes with lending agencies; 
  • Representation of manufacturers in disputes with producers and distributors of infringing goods violating intellectual property rights.

Support in administrative disputes and representation in government bodies:

  • Representation of manufacturers’ interests in customs agencies and during litigations with customs agencies, and specifically in terms of goods qualification, definition of customs value and application of reduced rates of customs duties;
  • Representation of manufacturers’ interests in disputes with control and regulatory agencies (Rospotrebnadzor, Prosecutors’ Office, fire prevention authorities, technical supervision authorities, etc.);
  • Representation of manufacturers before the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), contestation of FAS rulings at courts.

Tax Consultations and Support during Tax Disputes:

  • Analysis of enterprise group’s operational structure in terms of tax efficiency (and specifically in terms of full application of tax remissions) and tax risks; consulting in terms of risk reduction;* Support during tax inspections, and specifically negotiations with tax authorities, and consultations to personnel in terms of tax inspections; 
  • Contestation of tax related claims, in both pre-trial and/or judicial process, and specifically concerning relevance of applied preferential tax rates for certain groups of goods (including socially important goods), of claims relating to counterparties’ good faith in terms of taxation and transfer pricing.

Andrey Korelskiy
Managing partner
Attorney