Legal and Regulatory Deep Dive
A step-by-step guide to navigating and interpreting the Legal and Regulatory feature in Rove — illustrated with Rove Nature's Lather.
Rove Nature's Lather™ | Territory: 🇺🇸 United States | Category: Other Shower & Bath
How Legal & Regulatory Works
The Legal and Regulatory section takes all of your product information - your proposition, composition, description, and labelling - and runs it through the platform to identify areas where there may be legal and regulatory issues.
Issues are displayed with the relevant laws for each territory, details of what needs to be done, and a timeline for resolution. They are also ranked by severity, starting with critical issues first. The score in this section is often very low on the first pass of a scan - and sometimes it will be zero.
💡 Why this matters: This gives you a prioritised and ranked view of compliance risk - so you know exactly where to focus first.
Stage 1
Overview & Score
When you open your product in Rove and navigate to Legal and Regulatory, the first thing you'll see is a summary and a score. The score tells you how compliant your product is and what work still needs to be done before it's ready for market.
💡 Reading the score: A score of 10 or above means that your product can be published to Rove Secure.
Stage 2
Disclaimer & Partner Ecosystem
At the top of the page, you'll see a disclaimer that reinforces the snapshot-in-time nature of Rove's legal and regulatory view for each territory - and the importance of consulting with a legal advisor.
💡 Tip: As with all sections of the Rove scan, Rove has an ecosystem of partners that can be introduced to you if haven't yet appointed a Legal & Regulatory consultant.
Stage 3
Resolving Issues & Uploading Evidence
The primary way to resolve issues is by uploading supporting paperwork.
For example, if the platform flags an ambiguous recyclability claim for your packaging, you would click Upload below that issue, upload a PDF that demonstrates compliance, optionally add a written explanation and submit. Within 24 hours, the platform will assess the paperwork and either approve it or come back to you for more information.
Interpretive Risk
Some issues flagged by the platform - such as claims described as "potentially misleading" or "implied" - may not have documents to upload to resolve the issues. These require interpretation by a regulatory consultant, as brands need to assess the risk of entering a market with those claims and whether they will be viewed as misleading.
💡 Support: If you encounter issues in resolving these flags for interpretive risk, please reach out to support@go-rove.com. They can talk you through the steps needed to achieve a score of 10 or above, which is required to move your product to Rove Secure.
Stage 6
Potential Future Regulations
Scrolling further down, you'll find a section on potential future regulations. This is an important tool for future-proofing your product and proposition in market - surfacing upcoming regulatory changes that may affect your compliance position before they come into effect.
Stage 7
Relevant Regulations
Following the future regulations section, the platform lists the relevant regulations that underpin all of the compliance issues and potential regulations flagged above. This list can be expanded for a fuller view.
Stage 8
Patents & Trademarks
The platform also raises any questions about patents that may conflict with terms you are looking to protect in the market. Additionally, a trademark search is included - drawing on the trademark information you entered during the product upload - to confirm whether there are any live competing trademarks for your product name.
💡 Reminder: Trademark information can be entered during the product upload stage. The platform will then surface any live competing trademarks here.