Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/08/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]- --------------85423E5F183FFCDEACA43848 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lucien, Here is an article from the BBC. Apparently, grey imports are still allowed if the importer buys the goods in another EU country, but not if he buys outside the EU. As a practical matter, I do not know how effectively this sort of thing can be policed. Yet another example of idiotic EU regulations! Nathan > Set-back for parallel imports > > Bad news for consumers from the: > > BBC World Service: Business: The Economy > Thursday, July 16, 1998 > > Designer imports ruled illegal > > It's cheap and it's the real thing > > In a landmark decision, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg has outlawed sales of discounted designer goods imported into the European Union > without approval from brand owners. > > The European Court's judges said that such imports violated EU trademark rules. The court ruled that companies could only buy goods from sources other > than the producer if they were within the European community. > > The court ruled on an Austrian case, where a company sold cut-price sunglasses of the Austrian manufacturer Silhouette, which it had bought in Bulgaria and > re-imported into the EU. > > The decision is a setback for supermarket chains and discount retailers across Europe. In the UK alone, supermarkets do an estimated L100m of business in > low price designer goods from brand leaders such as Calvin Klein and Nike. > > Several British supermarkets vowed to seek loopholes in the law and keep using the grey market. > > Tesco spokesman Alan McLaughlin said: "We think there should be fair competition in the market place. Our customers don't want to pay L50 for a pair of > Levis, they want to pay L30. Why should they be paying between 20% and 50% more for jeans in this country than they would in the United States?" > > Parallel/Grey Imports > - -- Nathan Wajsman Overijse, Belgium Photography page: http://members.tripod.com/~belgiangator/index.html Motorcycle page: http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/downs/1704/index.html - --------------85423E5F183FFCDEACA43848 Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit <HTML> Lucien, <P>Here is an article from the BBC. Apparently, grey imports are still allowed if the importer buys the goods in another EU country, but not if he buys outside the EU. As a practical matter, I do not know how effectively this sort of thing can be policed. Yet another example of idiotic EU regulations! <P>Nathan <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE> <PRE>Set-back for parallel imports Bad news for consumers from the: BBC World Service: Business: The Economy Thursday, July 16, 1998 Designer imports ruled illegal It's cheap and it's the real thing In a landmark decision, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg has outlawed sales of discounted designer goods imported into the European Union without approval from brand owners. The European Court's judges said that such imports violated EU trademark rules. The court ruled that companies could only buy goods from sources other than the producer if they were within the European community. The court ruled on an Austrian case, where a company sold cut-price sunglasses of the Austrian manufacturer Silhouette, which it had bought in Bulgaria and re-imported into the EU. The decision is a setback for supermarket chains and discount retailers across Europe. In the UK alone, supermarkets do an estimated L100m of business in low price designer goods from brand leaders such as Calvin Klein and Nike. Several British supermarkets vowed to seek loopholes in the law and keep using the grey market. Tesco spokesman Alan McLaughlin said: "We think there should be fair competition in the market place. Our customers don't want to pay L50 for a pair of Levis, they want to pay L30. Why should they be paying between 20% and 50% more for jeans in this country than they would in the United States?" Parallel/Grey Imports</PRE> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>-- <BR>Nathan Wajsman <BR>Overijse, Belgium <P>Photography page: <A HREF="http://members.tripod.com/~belgiangator/index.html">http://members.tripod.com/~belgiangator/index.html</A> <BR>Motorcycle page: <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/downs/1704/index.html">http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/downs/1704/index.html</A> <BR> </HTML> - --------------85423E5F183FFCDEACA43848--