BGP Litigation Lawyers Represent a Pharmaceutical Company in an Unfair Competition Dispute

The BGP Litigation Competition Law Practice team has successfully represented a Russian pharmaceutical company in a contentious dispute over recognition of the competitor's actions in selling a medicinal product in similar packaging as an act of unfair competition and achieved an alteration of the competitor's product packaging.

Since 2017, the client company had invested in enhancing its brand recognition. In December 2024, a competitor company introduced onto the market an equivalent new product in packaging containing characteristic elements (colour scheme, graphic details and their layout) that created the impression among consumers that this product belonged to the client company's product line. This situation could have triggered financial losses and reputational risks for the client.

The BGP Litigation Competition Law Practice lawyers assessed the legal grounds for protecting the client's interests, elaborated a strategy and prepared legal reasoning regarding signs of unfair competition in the competitor's actions. As part of the case, the team conducted a comparative analysis of the packaging, supplemented the evidence base with data from a study by the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Centre (VTSIOM) and expert comparison, and proposed robust legal protection mechanisms, from a ban on sale of the product to its withdrawal from circulation and changes to its packaging.

The collected body of evidence exerted a key influence on the position of the competitor company, which ultimately proposed entering into a settlement agreement.

As a result of the lawyers' work, the competitor company agreed to make changes to its packaging design and discontinue use of the elements that misled consumers. The settlement agreement made possible a prompt resolution to the dispute, elimination of the client’s risks and restoration of fair competition on the pharmaceutical market.

The project was contributed by: BGP Litigation Competition Law Practice Partner Irina Akimova and Senior Lawyer Daria Ognevskaya.