The dietary supplement market is a booming one, and if current trends continue, it’s looking to become even bigger. This makes supplements an attractive option for many aspiring business owners, whether they plan to run a brick-and-mortar store or sell online. The popularity of dietary supplements is certainly a great advantage, as are the facts that supplements have fairly minimal regulation and can be sold without prescriptions. This doesn’t mean that supplements guarantee a path to success, however. You’ll still face the same challenges of any business, from drawing up a plan to secure investors if needed and working out your niche. For example, do you want to sell nutritional supplements with all-natural ingredients, protein supplements for best results after a workout, or supplements to treat erectile dysfunction and improve sexual health?
Like any smart business owner, you’ll also need to have all your legal bases covered. This means having a skilled attorney on your side for legal advice and defense in lawsuits if it comes to it. Take an accomplished attorney like Malliha Wilson as an example. Malliha Wilson currently practices complex litigation at Nava Wilson LLP. She served as the Assistant Deputy Attorney General for the Government of Ontario, contributing to over 20 cases at the Supreme Court of Canada. Malliha is known for assisting communities with legal processes and serving on the board of directors for the Toronto Foundation for Student Success and many other organizations. With a decorated attorney like Malliha on your team, you’d be ready for anything. Here are the most common reasons why a supplement company would need a lawyer.
Contract Review
Unless you want to go through the required licensing and deal with FDA regulations for supplements yourself, you’re going to be working with a supplement manufacturer to mix your formulas and ship your products. This means that you’ll have a contract with your manufacturer, and as a business owner, you’ll want to ensure that the contract is fair to you. Having an attorney-client relationship with a lawyer means that they can review the contract to ensure that terms are unambiguous, find any important clauses hidden in fine print, go over termination terms, and generally check that the contract is fair to both parties. This way, you can move forward with your manufacturer in confidence.
Marketing
Every business needs to advertise its products, but you’ll need to be careful about how you market supplements. Firstly, they should never be marketed like medication, meaning that you can’t claim your supplement “cures” anything. Also, any claims that you make about the supplements need to be verifiable and presented honestly. In fact, this is best left up to the professionals who actually make the supplement.
Consider the supplement VigRX Plus as an example. This is a male enhancement product that claims to improve the ability to maintain an erection, increase overall sex drive, and improve sexual satisfaction. VigRX also claims to use all-natural ingredients and to have no negative side effects. Before making statements like this about the products you sell, you’ll want to check with your legal advisor to make sure it’s all verifiable.
Lawsuits
When most people think about lawyers, they tend to think about court cases, which is the most important reason to have a good attorney on your side. You never know when a customer may make a claim against your company for an individual case that’s gone bad. Suppose a customer claims that taking one of your supplements resulted in a birth injury, for example. You’ll need your lawyer to defend you and offer tips for navigating a birth injury case.
Your attorney may be able to defend you against a birth injury lawyer by claiming that medical negligence during the delivery process caused the birth injury or that brain damage was caused by a lack of blood flow. Lawsuits are serious threats for any business owner, and you’ll need the best defense to get through them.
