Don’t look beyond your label

is the principal at Conrad Law

MANY businesses are expanding the reach of their products beyond their traditional instore and local distribution networks, by selling online.

Innovative traders can immediately expand their reach from local to national and even international customers.

However, there is more to think about than just the mechanics of registering a domain name, setting up a good website and putting together a social media strategy.

There is also the long reach of government red tape and compliance requirements to consider.

Labelling requirements are a significant but often overlooked area of compliance legislation.

Some labelling requirements will affect a small cottage industry, just as strictly as they affect multinational companies.

There are numerous labelling requirements that affect manufacturers and producers, many of which are productspecific. Fines for breaches can be substantial.

Labels and packaging for all products must be accurate and not give false, deceptive or misleading information to users of the product.

Country-of-origin requirements are likely to apply.

Labels on pre-packaged products may be required to include the position, size and format of measurement information and include the name and address of the packer.

Very strict rules apply to information on packaging for food, or where the product has ingredients that include potentially hazardous substances.

It is also worth protecting the effort that has gone into designing unique branding, logos and packaging to ensure the product stands out from rivals. The intellectual property in that branding can be protected by registering branding elements as trademarks.