Team size: Eight  

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?  

Managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises involves a proactive and multifaceted approach to ensure the organisation’s resilience. Firstly, we prioritise establishing a crisis response framework that includes clear communication channels, predefined roles, and rapid assessment protocols to quickly identify and address emerging legal issues. This enables us to respond swiftly and effectively to any instability or crisis. 

Our legal strategy is closely aligned with the broader business strategy by ensuring continuous collaboration with other departments, such as risk management, compliance, and operations. This alignment allows for a cohesive response that supports the organisation’s overarching goals, such as maintaining market reputation, safeguarding consumer trust, and ensuring regulatory compliance. 

In practice, this means not only adhering to legal obligations but also anticipating potential challenges and mitigating risks through robust contractual safeguards, proactive litigation strategies, and ongoing regulatory monitoring. Our legal team provides critical insights into evolving legal landscapes, ensuring that business decisions are informed by comprehensive legal knowledge.  

Furthermore, during crises, one of our focuses as Legal Department is to adopt a flexible and adaptive approach, capable of pivoting as circumstances evolve. This may involve renegotiating contracts or addressing sudden regulatory changes.  

Overall, our integrated approach ensures that the legal strategy supports and enhances Veepee’s resilience, enabling us to navigate crises with confidence and maintain our commitment to excellence and sustainability in the e-commerce industry. 

What are the main cases or transactions that you have been involved in recently? 

Business and corporate reorganisation of the Brazilian subsidiary: the corporate structure reorganisation involved the incorporation of a Spanish branch of the Brazilian entity to which the European-based Tech teams managing the technological platform and operations of the Brazilian entity were transferred.  

This project was completed by means of a trans-national contribution of assets, which also entailed a deep tax analysis and a thorough contractual review, and, where needed, assignment of a very significant amount of existing contractual relationships with third parties.  

Adaptation of the Veepee sites to new consumer and digital regulations both at a European and Spanish level (Omnibus, P2B, DSA, GPSR…): this effort involved a meticulous review and overhaul of our digital platforms and business processes to ensure complete alignment with the new stringent regulations. By integrating these regulatory requirements, the Legal team facilitated enhanced trust and transparency with both consumers and business partners, and fortified our market position against potential legal challenges. This strategic compliance initiative not only safeguarded Veepee from substantial fines but also underscored our commitment to ethical standards and consumer rights, ultimately fostering a more secure and reliable e-commerce environment for our users and our business partners. 

How have you integrated technology into your legal processes, and what impact has this had on efficiency and compliance?

At Veepee we have strategically integrated multiple technologies into our general business processes, as well as into our legal operations. This integration aligns our business operations with modern standards and expectations, positioning us for continued success and growth in the dynamic e-commerce landscape.

A notable example aimed to improve both business and legal processes is the incorporation of a state-of-the art Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution linked to our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. This solution automates the entire contract process related to our sourcing agreements, which represent one of the most significant area of document review by Veepee’s legal team – with more than 10.000 agreements signed annually across Europe.

This CLM solution automates drafting, negotiation, and approvals. It minimises manual errors, reduces the time spent on administrative tasks and ensures that agreements are only sent for signature once they have been properly approved by the responsible stakeholders.

Additionally, Veepee has implemented electronic signature software linked to an automated archiving solution, which accelerates the signing process, reduces paper usage, and ensures that documents are signed promptly and securely by the authorised signatories in each instance.

The central repository created by the CLM solution and maintained by the auto-archiving solution ensures documents adhere to company policies, are searchable, and accessible, thereby enhancing both efficiency and compliance. And most importantly, it creates a single source of truth across all business and back-office departments where data related to a specific agreement can be consulted.