About

Hyun-Soo Kim has a number of highlights to look back on over the course of an over decade-long career with Hyundai Motor Europe. ‘When I joined Hyundai Motor Europe in 2007 as general legal counsel’, he recalls, ‘all national Hyundai distributors in Europe were independent third parties except for the ones located in the UK and Poland. A strategic decision was made to reorganise the distribution network through acquiring the seven most important distributors which were then consolidated into the Hyundai Group. My role was initially to handle all legal matters of these acquisitions but developed soon into covering commercial aspects as well and, at the peak of this reorganisation phase in 2011, I was in charge of negotiating both legal and commercial terms. This acquisition remains the biggest transaction of the Group in Europe to date’. More recently, Kim continues to be at the epicentre of strategic projects for the company: ‘Another highlight would be my work on protecting the Hyundai selective distribution system in Europe. In the beginning of 2016 Hyundai became aware of an increasing trend of unauthorised distribution of new Hyundai vehicles originating from within the European Economic Area (EEA) and outside the EEA. To stop the unauthorised distribution of Hyundai vehicles originating from outside the EEA required the application of European trademark law and local case law. The structure, principles and validity of our selective distribution system were secured and obviously further damages to us and our three retail network could be prevented. Within eleven months, in total more than 650 involved unauthorised commercial resellers across Europe signed a cease and desist declaration. To further enhance the protection of our selective distribution system from unauthorised sales of Hyundai vehicles originating from within the EEA, I developed an innovative solution. The concept is to limit the manufacturer’s warranty to genuine products that have been sold through the official network. All products sold by unauthorised resellers would not be covered despite being genuine. As of 1st March 2017, Hyundai changed the terms and conditions of its five-year unlimited manufacturer’s warranty across the EEA and Switzerland. The specific customer protection programme is currently being rolled out throughout Europe’. Building on his excellent legal and business expertise in order to find genuinely innovative solutions to strategically important company issues, Kim is a model in-house counsel for others to emulate. As for what he believes the optimal quality that an in-house lawyer should have, he is clear: ‘The most important characteristic is to proactively identify the needs and challenges the business is facing and to be able to bring innovative working solutions’.