RetailTech & eCommerce

Marketing communications should be legal, decent, honest and truthful to ensure that consumer confidence is maintained. 

The industry is regulated by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) and the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) Codes (Broadcast and Non-Broadcast) alongside Trading Standards (Non-Broadcast) and Ofcom (Broadcast). The Codes supplement the law such as the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 or the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008.

Our teams can advise on compliance and responding to ASA complaints. 

While using and analysing user data can bring significant commercial benefits to your business, it’s essential to do so in accordance with data protection laws. With the EU AI Act now in force amid a turbulent political and economic landscape, limiting your risks when processing personal data where you trade outside of the UK has never been so important.

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 consolidates key consumer rights. Ensuring that appropriate standards are met and sufficient information is provided, avoiding unfair terms (particularly around price) and offering consistent consumer rights and remedies are the elements that your business needs to understand. 

Our specialists can help to ensure that your consumer contracts for goods, digital content and services are compliant, as well as assist with breaches and remedies, advise on anti-competitive behaviour and deal with enforcement issues that may arise via Trading Standards, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the Competition Appeals Tribunal (CAT). 

Getting your commercial agreements right is the key to creating and maintaining value in any business. Terms and conditions (and other contracts) are critical assets that our commercial group can future-proof and tailor to your precise requirements.

We provide support in reviewing, drafting and negotiating all trading agreements, collaborations, joint ventures, IT arrangements and policies and procedures for website use, privacy, consumer protection, eCommerce and more.

Whether helping you to build resilience or respond to threats and make disclosures, our advisors work across the full lifecycle of cybersecurity incidents. 

We can also make sure that you’re legally protected when using technologies and services designed to address cybersecurity risks. Online retail and eCommerce platforms are an obvious target for cyberattacks and fraud, so having the right protections in place alongside rapid response plans can limit your risk exposure.

Our expert team — which includes Data Protection Practitioners and senior commercial solicitors — can assess your data protection practices and fix any gaps to ensure that you stay secure and legally compliant. We can also be on-hand to react if you suffer a breach and offer specialist training on data protection management and GDPR compliance.

Today’s customers expect a seamless multichannel shopping experience. Yet online trading comes with a stack of legal requirements. Navigating these — and ensuring ongoing compliance — isn’t always easy. 

RetailTech - That’s why we created our eCommerce Suite, which comes with all the essential contracts, policies, procedures, terms and conditions you’ll need to trade online with peace of mind. We can further assist with outsourcing agreements, service level agreements and framework or master services agreements.

Data protection and cybersecurity compliance will also be crucial. The same goes for advertising standards and consumer rights advice, as well as the agreements and policies you have in place around marketing, promotion and influencer arrangements.

Talk to us for more information about our eCommerce suite.

If you’re developing your online presence to improve the customer experience and take advantages of emerging technologies like AI and blockchain, it’s likely that you’ll need website and software development agreements, as well as other agreements with software providers. 

RetailTech will inevitably use payment systems and other financial technologies to improve efficiency, connectivity and the user experience. The law and regulation continue to adapt and our team is well-placed to advise on the relevant corporate, commercial and regulatory issues. We can help you to understand the legal implications when developing products and services that leverage game-changing technologies.

The future is bright for urban environments. Our real estate and regeneration lawyers are on-hand to unite and empower developers, landlords, investors and local authorities to support the ambition for experiences and services that are making retail spaces enticing once more. 

We offer advice to brands, influencers, agencies and technology platforms around contracts, agreements, reputation management and much more to ensure ongoing compliance with the ever changing commercial and legal landscape.

From protecting innovations, designs and brands with registered rights to advising on infringement, licences, collaboration agreements and more, our experienced IP lawyers, practitioners and attorneys offer a true end to end service. 

We also have a deep understanding of how retail and technology businesses can protect their IP while facilitating the necessary collaboration to gain market traction and scale.

For eCommerce businesses and platforms, the manufacturing supply chain and logistics are crucial to ensure consumer confidence and success in the business. 

Rapid advances in technology — such as AI and blockchain — alongside increasing automation and data exchange are driving the fourth industrial revolution. New technologies will lead to changing roles and provide chances for employees to be retrained to complement the new business dynamics. 

Businesses need an expert partner that’s fluent in the issues they’re facing and can help to navigate the changing landscape and drive business growth. Our experienced team is actively working with manufacturing clients, providing commercial and legal guidance to enable them to achieve their goals.

From determining whether medical device regulations apply to your products to correct labelling and engagement with regulators, our specialist lawyers provide essential advice around medical devices and health tech innovations throughout the product lifecycle. 

Through working with various large retailers and shopping centres, we’re truly on the frontlines of ESG in retail. Our specialist lawyers have immense experience in helping retailers to improve their sustainability practices and address the challenges that typically arise along the way. 

We can also advise on regulations around ‘greenwashing’ and managing your responsibilities under environmental law. We’re experienced in working with the Environment Agency among many other regulators that may affect your business.

Start-ups and scale-ups need funding to turn their ambitions into reality. Understanding your options is the first step to securing the right investment — and we’re here to guide you through the process. 

We’re fortunate to support an extensive network of investors and funders, which means that we’re able to assist with the full range of private equity and funding transactions.