delivery in USA only?

In many cases, retailers are only authorised to market a particular manufacturer's products within a certain geographical area. This allows manufacturers to apply different pricing to different markets.

Chris

"Chris Blunt" wrote

Then a third party simply buys a volume of stock in the cheapest geographical area, ships them to the most expensive geographical area, and sells them undercutting the "official" retailers there...

What's the point?

You mean like Tescos did when they tried importing Levis jeans from countries where they were cheap, and reselling them in their stores in the UK? They ended up having Levis take them to court over it and Tescos lost the case.

Chris

"Chris Blunt" wrote

That decision actually also effectively means that no-one is entitled to sell on *second-hand* trade-marked goods (without the explicit consent of the trademark holder).

Have Ebay sellers, & charity shops up&down the land, stopped selling these type of items?

Does that mean that the EU (including the UK) does not have the equivalent of the US 'First Sale' doctrine? That is, in a nutshell, that once you have legally acquired any goods that the manufacturer/distributor has no control over how you dispose of it.

"Graham Murray" wrote

That does seem like a reasonable system. However, it appears that the EU decided that the manufacturer *does* have control over onward distribution, by virtue of their trademark registration!

[If the manufacturer doesn't like a particular distribution route, apparently it infringes their trademark...]

Once goods have been placed on the market within the EU by the original manufacturer or someone properly authorised by them they are then free to be moved on and traded elsewhere within the EU. The original manufacturer has the right to place them on the market first, no-one else. So, it would be a contravention of trade mark law for someone to buy goods in, say, Brazil or the USA, then import them for sale in the EU under the original trade mark.

That's a consequence of having a 'common market'.

"Norman Wells" wrote

Err - we have a "global market" now! So, once something has been put on sale in the US, it's already in the "global market"...

So that they can price gouge customers in other areas.

Sadly this bizarre doctrine means that the large companies can anti-competitively in the EU and the courts will protect them. The makers describe the goods legitimately purchased abroad and then imported as "grey", although I bet they described them as brand new in the place they sold them.

Despite relatively tougher product liability legislation in the USA some companies charge huge margins for virtually identical goods in the UK (they might change the plug).

Yamaha were the worst offenders with a mark up on Hi-Fi of 250% over US prices, and they make the equipment incompatible if at all possible and will renege on the warranty for goods bought outside the UK.

Oddly Sony were the least bad, with only about 70% (quite a lot VAT and duty) and importantly Sony warranties are valid world wide.

This is untrue, the trademark holder loses the right to enforce restrictions once the goods have left the supply chain.

Gaz

A bad ruling in my opinion, and a complete abuse of what the trademark laws were actually intended for.

Chris

Adidas may have agreements in place with distributors in some countries giving them exclusive rights to sell their products in that country. In order to prevent distributors in other places from encroaching on someone else's territory, those agreements would also prevent distributors from selling outside their assigned area.

Chris

IIRC some parcel services, parcel2go was one I think, offer a parcel forwarding service. I don't know how this works out in cost terms.

Going a bit off the thread. If one had a friend in the US one could order online, get them delivered to the friend and they could send them over here. In this example, how does the friend fill in the customs slip? As they are sending them to you and you are not paying them - are they a "gift" is the value affected by them being "second hand?" I suppose it might depend on how (in who's name) you ordered them in the first place.

My assumption would be that you would be liable for tax in the same way as if you bought direct from the company, but might there be a loophole?

Er, no we don't.

No it isn't. It's free to circulate within NAFTA, ie USA, Mexico and Canada. It can't be put on the market elsewhere in the world without the permission of the original trade mark owner.

Or, to look at it more positively, to allow expensive pharmaceuticals to be sold in third world countries at prices uneconomic for the manufacturing company but that the consumers there can afford. Without some limitation on subsequent export of those drugs, they would only ever be sold in the highest price markets, and the third world countries would never get them.

It works both ways.

'Grey' does not mean that the goods are not brand new, just that they've been bought in another country and then imported.

Yes. they might also ensure that the goods work on a 220V, 50Hz electrical supply rather than 110V, 60Hz.

Which is quite handy.

Only within a single country, or a free trade area such as the EU or NAFTA. Not otherwise, not between countries not in the same free trade area, and not between different free trade areas unless further agreements are in force.