About

The Italian-Dutch global confectionery and gum manufacturer Perfetti Van Melle employs a highly capable legal team to support its India based operation. In the last two years the team has been taking steps towards identifying and monitoring contemporary developments in the law as they unfold, enabling its lawyers to set in place changes, whether in contract templates or in packaging practices, that keep the company on a secure footing. ‘To this end, we have developed a system for parsing, verifying, compiling, and analysing various primary and secondary sources, including the websites of regulatory agencies (like the FSSAI), blogs, newspapers, and social media. This enables the team to study and identify legal risk from a broader perspective’, Atul Sud, director – legal and regulatory affairs elaborates. ‘We have also put in place a system of annual and regular compliance checks, using multiple methods, including on-site audits. Having consistent rather than sporadic checks has helped in developing a culture in other departments of complying with the law routinely, rather than making ad-hoc arrangements to get by each audit’. The team has also impressed with its work on important cases for the company. In 2017, for instance, it successfully resolved a situation related to inaccurate reports made in relation to the company’s ‘Happydent Wave Strawberry’ offering, thus protecting the Perfetti Van Melle’s reputation and sales in the country, whilst a year earlier the team successfully handled a complex counterfeit matter in Nepal. Besides shielding the Indian business of Perfetti Van Melle, the team also advises on business units in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Bangladesh.