Luxury fashion increasingly intersects with transportation, including shipping, and logistics. Here are three examples of how the industry touches transportation law:

Logistics and supply chain

Accuracy, security, speed, and condition reporting are of paramount importance in the luxury fashion supply chain. All of these can be safeguarded and influenced by including them as additional key terms or performance indicators in contractual freight terms, which are negotiated and agreed between the shippers of luxury fashion cargoes and their logistics providers. By taking care to review and negotiate bespoke freight terms, luxury fashion brands can safeguard brand image, prevent losses, and improve legal compliance.

Cargo claims

When luxury fashion goods are loaded on a ship or aircraft, a document called a “bill of lading” or “air waybill” is issued. This document is not just a receipt that enables shipment tracking and transparency; it is also evidence of a contract between the cargo’s owner and the owner or operator of the ship or aircraft, and it contains or evidences the terms of that contract. The bill document can also represent title or ownership of the cargo loaded. The often-neglected bill document can therefore be the gateway for cargo owners and interested parties to assert their rights and remedies against a carrier in relation to luxury fashion cargoes, from delays to damage and from customs clearance issues to theft and fraud.

Aspirational, experiential, and visual marketing

By staging luxury fashion products on board luxury yachts, brands can sell and communicate a story of opulence, travel, adventure, and leisure. Through visual marketing, exclusive events and viewings, or working with influencers on board luxury yachts, fashion products such as handbags, accessories, and clothing become associated with a highly desirable leisure experience – a powerful marketing motivator for luxury fashion consumers.

Staging and hosting events on board yachts involves arranging access via a “charterparty” contract with the yacht’s owner. The typical yacht charterparty will be amended and supplemented to cover requirements such as guest and contractor access, intellectual property rights, insurance and care for valuable cargo, and crew assistance and welfare. Additional contractual indemnities and waivers may also be necessary for visiting contractors and guests, as well as for the use of water toys and other small craft.

Reed Smith’s Transportation Industry Group regularly supports ambitious companies with the drafting and negotiation of freight terms for consumer goods, represents cargo interests in disputes with carriers in courts and arbitration jurisdictions around the world, and drafts and negotiates contracts for fashion staging and events on board luxury yachts.