Chemicals and phytopharmaceutical products

Companies operating in the chemical, agrochemical and phytopharmaceutical industries must deal with an increasingly extensive and sophisticated legislation, most of the time derived from EU Directives and Regulations. We offer them legal advice and represent them in both pre-litigation and litigation phases.

In this context, our services are structured around two lines of action:

Legal advice

Soulier Avocats assists chemical, agrochemical and phytopharmaceutical companies on the responsibilities and obligations imposed on them by French and EU legislations and regulations.

Our lawyers have acquired in-depth knowledge of the applicable EU texts, including but not limited to: CLP (i.e. Regulation 1272/2008 of December 16, 2008 on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures), REACH (i.e. Regulation 1907/2006 of December 18, 2006 concerning the registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemicals and establishing a European chemicals agency), PIC (i.e. Regulation 689/2008 of June 17, 2008 concerning the export and import of dangerous chemicals), Regulation on biocidal products (i.e. Regulation 528/2012 of May 22, 2012 concerning the making available on the market and use of biocidal products).

We advise our clients, among which world leaders in the chemical and phytopharmaceutical markets, in connection with the classification, labeling and packaging of their products (substances and/or mixtures), the registration of such products, the preparation and filing of the required safety data sheet, etc.

We also provide strategic assistance with respect to risk assessment and prevention, as well as on all issues related to the publicity, promotion, sale, transport and distribution of chemical, agrochemical and phytopharmaceutical products.

Finally, we also help our clients liaise with competent administrative authorities, such as the DREAL (Directions régionales de l’environnement, de l’aménagement et du logement, i.e. Regional Directorates for Environment, Development and Housing) or the DGCCRF (Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes, i.e. Directorate General for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control), following investigations and audits carried out in application of the aforementioned legal texts, or in the framework of the interpretation and implementation of French and European legislations.

Litigation

Soulier Avocats defend the interests of its clients before administrative and criminal courts in litigations related to the manufacture, placement on the market, import and use of chemical, agrochemical and phytopharmaceutical products.

As such, we represent companies in patent infringement proceedings concerning the parallel import of plant protection products or in the framework of recourses for misuse of authority and claims for indemnification against the State in relation to unusable plant protection products.