Law firm
Annual Conference on EU Law in the Food Sector 2022 in Brussels
Dr. Ina Gerstberger will be speaking on the topic “Novel Food Regulation – practical implementation challenges” on 20 May 2022 in Brussels. Further information are available here.
Drug Regulatory Affairs – Basic Course: Lecture on “Product Delimitation”
The “Drug Regulatory Affairs – Basic Course” will take place again this year at the University of Augsburg, ZWW. Dr. Ina Gerstberger will once again lecture on the topic of “product delimitation” (medicinal products vs. food, medical devices, cosmetics). The course starts on 16.09.2021. More information is available here.
The Legal500 Germany/EMEA: “Leading Law Firm/Recommended Lawyer” for Consumer Goods and Food Law
For the first time, The Legal 500 Germany/EMEA has included the practice area “Consumer Goods and Food Law” in its annual analysis of Germany’s best commercial law firms. GERSTBERGER | Products & Law immediately took a place in Group 2 (of 4 Groups) of the existing ranking. A big thank you to all clients and colleagues for their positive feedback!
Award as best commercial law firm 2021 in the field of healthcare/pharmaceuticals by brandeins/Statista
GERSTBERGER | Products & Law was named “Best Commercial Law Firm 2021” in the fields of “Healthcare/Pharmaceuticals” by brandeins/Statista. The list of the best commercial law firms in Germany 2021 is based on a survey among lawyers (colleague survey) and in-house lawyers (client survey) for a total of 24 areas of law. For the 2020 survey, 11279 lawyers from commercial law firms and 3463 in-house lawyers, among others, were identified and invited to participate in the online survey by email with a personalised link. A total of 2515 lawyers and in-house lawyers participated in the survey. In the end, 405 law firms made it into the best list. GERSTBERGER | Products & Law is one of them! This makes us very proud and encourages to continue providing outstanding services to clients.
Law firm website of the year 2020 – Bronze medal for GERSTBERGER l Products & Law
GERSTBERGER l Product & Law’s online presence was awarded the bronze medal (3rd place) in the MkG Expo competition for the “Law Firm Website of the Year” 2020.
The expert jury, assembled by lawyer Pia Löffler and the FFI publishing house, first made a pre-selection based on the functionality and design of all law firm websites participating in the competition. Subsequently, MkG readers were able to vote on which website was the most appealing. Further information and a video of the award ceremony are available here. I am very happy about this award and would like to say thank you to all supporters. Congratulations also to my colleagues for their success in the competition!
Expert forum “Update CBD” with focus on food law
Dr. Ina Gerstberger will be sharing some valuable insights on the legal challenges regarding the use of the hemp ingredient cannabidiol (CBD) in foodstuffs in a live webinar (in German) organised by Alphatopics on 01 July 2020 (2 pm to 3.30 pm CET). In the recent months, the courts have dealt with a whole series of aspects and a clearer picture is developing of what is legally possible and what is a grey area or illegal which will also be adressed in the webinar. Further information on the registration to the live-webinar are avaible via the following link.
GERSTBERGER | Products & Law is a new member of “Tax & Legal Exellence”
GERSTBERGER | Products & Legal was selected as a new member of the international expert network “Tax & Legal Excellence”. This network is aimed at top executives from private and public companies as well as renowned consultants from the leading tax and business law firms in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The core orientation of the network is aimed at a group of members with excellent competence, who convey current knowledge from science, business, the legal and tax law practice in the best possible way. Further information about this business network is available here.
EUROFORUM Annual Conference on “Food Supplements” 2020
The popular industry conference on “Food Supplements” organised by EUROFORUM will take place for the 20th consecutive time on 6/7 February 2020 in Frankfurt/Main. Dr. Ina Gerstberger will be speaking about the trend topic “personalised nutrition” and will also take part in a panel discussion on the most important trends and developments in the food supplements industry and the resulting legal implications. Further details on the programme (in German) are available here.
If you have not yet registered, but are interested in attending the conference and would like to benefit from a speaker discount of EUR 100 on the event price, please send an e-mail to: ig@productsandlaw.de.
GERSTBERGER | Products & Law among the “recommended law firms” for food law in the JUVE Handbook 2019/2020
GERSTBERGER | Products & Law is particularly recommended in the current JUVE Handbook for Commercial Law Firms 2019/2020 as a new specialist law firm for food law and related fields of law. The special expertise of the founder (“knowledgeable, but not complicated, pleasant to deal with” according to a competitor), as well as the core business in the area of health-related food, delimitation between food and pharmaceuticals and novel foods is higlighted. The editorial staff also particularly appreciates mandates on trend topics such as personalized nutrition, complementary feeds/veterinary drugs, innovative tobacco products and special foods/food for special medical purposes. A big thank you to all clients for their continued trust!
September 2019: Drug Regulatory Affairs – Basic Course at ZWW/Augsburg University
The part-time certificate course “Drug Regulatory Affairs – Basic Course” will again take place at the Centre for Continuing Education and Knowledge Transfer (ZWW) at Augsburg University from 12 to 28 September 2019. The course is addressed to both young professionals and specialists and managers from the pharmaceutical industry and related areas.
Products
No sweets for the authorities: “Without artificial colour” not per se a misleading advertising claim on confectionery products
Background of the case
A well-known German confectionery manufacturer advertised the freedom of its fruit gums, coloured with plant and fruit extracts, from the use of “artificial colours”. The competent authority considered the labelling claim as misleading under Paragraphs 11(1)(1) and (3) German Food and Feed Code (LFGB) in conjunction with Article 7(1) and (4) of Regulation (EC) No 1169/2011, since the legislature does not make a distinction between ‘artificial’ and ‘non-artificial’ colour additives, and submitted the file to the public prosecutor for further investigation. By way of background information, intentionally misleading food advertising constitutes also a criminal offence under Section 59 (1) No. 7 LFGB, which is punishable by imprisonment of up to one year or a fine. Thereupon, the confectionery manufacturer filed a declaratory action with the Administrative Court Freiburg (Case No. 8 K 6149/18) to achieve the temporary suspension of the criminal investigation proceedings on the responsible person until the administrative court has taken a legally binding decision on the allegation of misleading advertising.
Nutri Score knocks on the door – On the draft bill for the first amendment of the Food Information Implementing Ordinance in Germany
On 21.11.2019, the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) presented the first draft bill for the legitimisation of the Nutri Score labelling in Germany, which will be discussed in detail in the relevant committees in the forthcoming weeks. The determination of the respective “Nutri Score” is based on a point system in which unfavourable and favourable nutritional elements of a foodstuff are compared with each other. This finally leads to the classification of the corresponding food as “A” (dark green), “B” (light green), “C” (yellow), “D” (orange) or “E” (red). This type of nutritional information has already established itself in other EU Member States such as France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain and Portugal, but also requires a corresponding Member State recommendation to be acceptable as voluntary labelling (cf. Art. 35 (2) Regulation (EU) 1169/2011).
New legislation on transparency and sustainability of the EU risk assessment model in the food chain
On 13 June 2019 the Council adopted the new EU Regulation on transparency and sustainability of EU risk assessment model in the food chain, which is expected to enter into force at the end of September and will apply 18 months later, i.e. by end of March 2021.