The food and beverage sector in the UAE is thriving due to increased tourism, population growth and a culturally diverse customer base.
A wide range of food and beverage establishments can be found in the UAE, including food delivery options, restaurants and more. Each structure must follow its own legal guidance.
Legal guidance in the food and beverage industry is driven by multiple bodies, and covers important aspects such as food safety, licensing, labelling, import compliance, export compliance and consumer protection. The industry is governed by the UAE Ministry of Climate Change & Environment, the Dubai Municipality and the Abu Dhabi Agriculture & Food Safety Authority.
Food and beverage companies must understand the unique legal regulations in the UAE. As a dedicated law firm, we can assist you with all aspects of legal compliance, allowing you to keep your business running smoothly.
Common legal challenges in the food and beverage sector
Our legal team has years of experience in the food and beverage sector, so we can be on hand to support businesses of all sizes.
- Ensuring the correct licensing
- Ensuring regulatory compliance
- Adhering to food safety and hygiene regulations
- Correct item labelling
- Advertising compliance
- Franchising and intellectual property
- Importing and exporting regulations
- Ensuring employment compliance
- Following sustainable practices
- Ensuring customer protection and digital commerce compliance
Our expertise
We recognise the many unique challenges in the sector, and we pride ourselves on supporting our clients at every stage of the process. Companies operating within this sector are often met with a high turnover of employees. Therefore, we can draft in our employment law team to manage the process effectively and ensure that legal requirements are adhered to.
Our trusted legal practitioners are experts in franchising and commercial lease structuring, ensuring that your business runs efficiently throughout the process. We can also support you with mergers and acquisitions, importing and exporting and provide expert guidance on your supply chain and distribution agreements.
Health and safety are important for food and beverage businesses to consider. Our dynamic team can support you in ensuring food safety standards are met, so you don’t end up falling behind and losing customers.
The rise in digitalization remains prevalent in the food and beverage sector, so it’s vital that brands remain ahead of the curve to ensure a competitive advantage. Our team can provide trusted legal counsel on E-commerce regulations, including how they impact food delivery platforms.
Should your company find itself in a legal dispute, our dispute resolution team can represent you and will work with you to deliver a suitable outcome.
Our services
- Franchise and commercial lease structuring
- Intellectual property protection for brands, recipes, and packaging
- Regulatory compliance for health and food safety standards
- Employment law for high-churn workforces
- M&A advisory in the restaurant and food manufacturing sectors
- Advisory on supply chain and distribution agreements
- Representation in regulatory or food liability disputes
- Guidance on E-commerce regulations for food delivery platforms
Why partner with us
- Dedicated, multilingual legal team
- Extensive experience in the food and beverage sector
- Ensure compliance with all necessary frameworks
- Supply chain guidance
- Legal dispute representation
