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Practice Areas

A complete legal practice for online business — serving merchants, brand owners, and digital operators worldwide since 2020.

Payment Processor Holds

Stripe, PayPal, Shopify, Adyen, Mollie, Klarna, Square, Wise, Revolut and more.

Trademark & IP Protection

Brand defence, trademark filings, takedowns, and litigation against infringers worldwide.

Contracts & Agreements

Drafting, review, and negotiation of cross-border commercial agreements of every kind.

E-Commerce Disputes

Marketplace suspensions, chargebacks, supplier conflicts, fulfilment failures, consumer claims.

Data & Compliance

GDPR, UK GDPR, CCPA, cookie consent, breach response, and regulator engagement.

General Counsel

Fractional in-house counsel for growing businesses — all matters, one trusted point of contact.
An Honest Statement

We are not a general practice firm in the traditional sense — we are a focused practice for online business, in all its dimensions.

The practice areas below describe what we actually do. If a matter falls outside these areas, we will say so, and we are happy to refer you to colleagues we trust within our international network. Clarity, in our experience, saves clients more time and money than any single piece of advice we could otherwise offer.

I.
Our Specialty

Payment Processor Holds & Account Suspensions

When a payment processor places a hold on your account — whether a partial reserve, a 90-day rolling hold, a complete settlement freeze, or an outright off-boarding — the merchant is rarely told the actual underlying reason. Boilerplate references to "risk review," "elevated chargebacks," or "policy violation" almost never reflect the contractual basis the processor must rely on.

We have built our practice around the technical and regulatory mechanics of these holds, across every major processor operating internationally. Each platform has its own underwriter, its own regulatory architecture, and its own pressure points. We know them well.

Processors and platforms we routinely engage:

  • · Stripe
  • · PayPal
  • · Shopify Payments
  • · Adyen
  • · Mollie
  • · Klarna
  • · Square / Block
  • · Wise Business
  • · Revolut Business
  • · Worldpay
  • · Authorize.Net
  • · Other acquirers

Typical engagements include:

  • Recovery of frozen reserves and held settlement funds
  • Challenge of indefinite "rolling" reserves imposed without contractual basis
  • Account reinstatement following suspension or off-boarding
  • Review and contestation of underwriter risk decisions
  • Engagement with financial regulators (Central Bank of Ireland, DNB, FCA, BaFin, CSSF) where regulatory breach is evident
  • Coordinated correspondence across multiple processors when funds are split
  • Recovery of long-tail balances after account closure
II.
Brand Defence

Trademark & Intellectual Property Protection

For online businesses, the brand is the asset. When a competitor copies your name, when a counterfeiter clones your packaging, when a dropshipper sells unauthorised replicas of your product on Amazon or AliExpress — the damage compounds daily. We act quickly to stop infringement, recover what has been lost, and put protections in place to prevent recurrence.

Our IP practice spans both proactive protection (registration, monitoring, portfolio management) and reactive enforcement (takedowns, cease-and-desist, litigation). We coordinate trademark registrations across the EUIPO, USPTO, UKIPO, WIPO Madrid Protocol, and national registries, working with trusted local agents in every major jurisdiction.

Representative IP work:

  • Trademark filing and prosecution — Benelux, EU, UK, US, and worldwide via Madrid
  • Trademark opposition and cancellation proceedings
  • Cease-and-desist correspondence to infringers in any jurisdiction
  • Marketplace takedowns: Amazon Brand Registry, eBay VeRO, Etsy IP, AliExpress
  • Counterfeit operation enforcement, including coordination with customs authorities
  • Domain name disputes (UDRP, URS, .nl ADR, country-code arbitration)
  • Copyright infringement on social media, websites, and digital marketplaces
  • Trade dress, packaging, and design protection
  • Licensing agreements and brand collaboration contracts
III.
The Foundation

Contracts & Commercial Agreements

Every dispute we resolve traces back, eventually, to a contract. The right contract, drafted carefully at the start of a relationship, is the single most cost-effective legal investment a business can make. We draft, review, and negotiate the full range of agreements that online businesses rely on — with a particular eye to enforceability across borders.

Whether you need a single airtight NDA before a partner pitch, a master supplier agreement to govern a long-term relationship, or a complete contract template suite for your sales process, we work to your timeline and your commercial reality.

Agreement types we routinely handle:

  • Supplier and manufacturing agreements
  • Distribution and reseller contracts
  • Dropshipping and fulfilment agreements
  • Influencer and creator collaboration contracts
  • Affiliate and revenue-share agreements
  • Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) agreements
  • Master services agreements (MSA)
  • Statements of work (SOW)
  • Non-disclosure agreements (mutual and unilateral)
  • Terms of service and user agreements
  • End-user licence agreements (EULA)
  • Joint venture and partnership agreements
  • Shareholder and founder agreements
  • Employment and contractor agreements
  • Data processing agreements (DPA)
  • White-label and OEM contracts
IV.
When Things Go Wrong

E-Commerce Dispute Resolution

Beyond payment holds, online merchants face a continuous stream of operational disputes — with marketplaces, suppliers, fulfilment partners, and consumers. We act on every side of the cross-border equation, advising clients in over forty jurisdictions on disputes that touch their core operations.

Representative work:

  • Marketplace suspensions and account reinstatement (Amazon, eBay, Bol.com, Etsy, AliExpress, Walmart, TikTok Shop)
  • Chargeback dispute strategy and bank correspondence
  • Supplier and dropshipping contract enforcement
  • Manufacturer disputes (defects, late delivery, quality issues)
  • Consumer claims under EU Consumer Rights Directive, UK Consumer Rights Act, US state laws, and equivalents worldwide
  • Cross-border VAT and OSS dispute support, working alongside specialist tax counsel
  • Defamation and review-platform disputes (Trustpilot, Google reviews, Reddit, social media)
  • Influencer and brand ambassador contract disputes
  • SaaS vendor disputes and service-level claims
V.
Privacy & Regulation

Data Protection, GDPR & Compliance

Compliance is not a document — it is a posture. We help clients build the documentation, processes, and contractual architecture that allow them to demonstrate compliance under the GDPR, the UK GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act, and adjacent regulations worldwide. Where a regulator opens an inquiry, we represent clients through the response, from first contact to final disposition.

Specific work:

  • GDPR and UK GDPR readiness audits and remediation roadmaps
  • CCPA and US state privacy law compliance (Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, etc.)
  • Data Processing Agreements and inter-company data flows
  • Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) and international transfer architecture
  • Subject-access request handling and rights-request workflows
  • Data breach notification, response, and regulator correspondence
  • Cookie consent architecture and analytics compliance
  • Privacy policy and notice drafting for global audiences
  • Representation before the Dutch Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, ICO, CNIL, and other data protection authorities
VI.
For Established Businesses

General Counsel & Strategic Advisory

For online businesses with ongoing legal needs that don't justify hiring full-time in-house counsel, we offer fractional general counsel arrangements — the practical work of running a business, attended to by a single point of legal contact who knows your business well. Our retainer clients range from venture-backed e-commerce companies to established family businesses transitioning to digital channels.

Engagement areas:

  • Day-to-day legal questions across contract, employment, and commercial matters
  • Corporate matters: BV/Ltd/LLC formation, shareholder agreements, ownership transfers
  • Mergers, acquisitions, and exit advisory
  • Investment due diligence (both as company and as investor)
  • Employment law for international remote teams
  • Regulatory horizon scanning for online businesses
  • Litigation strategy and counsel selection across jurisdictions
  • Crisis response and reputation management coordination
A Word on Fees

Transparent.
Predictable.
Without surprise.

We work on a combination of fixed fees, capped fees, and conventional hourly arrangements depending on the matter. For most payment processor hold engagements, we offer a fixed-fee structure with a contingent component on funds recovered. For ongoing general counsel relationships, we provide monthly retainers scaled to the volume of work expected.

Every engagement begins with a written engagement letter setting out scope and fees in full. We do not bill for our initial consultation, and if we cannot help, we will say so within that call.

You will never receive an invoice from us that surprises you.

Begin Your Engagement

Discuss your matter, in confidence.

Use the form on our contact page, or write directly to info@zuydlegal.com. We respond to all enquiries within one business day.

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