Illegal? Wrong?

I''m the one who wrote the above response, just forgot to sign my name.

-Decoy

I believe what you are talking about is also called ''parallel imports''. I know it is illegal here (large parts of Europe) for things like CD''s (music), and maybe also books, but I don''t know exactly why.

There have been talks (at least where I live, in the Netherlands) about why this is illegal (whether it is illegal at all), since some companies wanted to buy CD''s cheap from the US instead of directly from the record companies here - something like that.

I think the ''grey markets'' of the previous poster are a good point why people (merchants) would *want* it to be illegal, but still makes you wonder if there are any specific rules about it in law (or maybe it''s a ''per-company'' policy - in their ''agreements''...)

Guess I haven''t helped much, but hopefully still a litte


Kind regards,
Maarten Egmond.

Good advices.

"I''m a friend of Jessica Alba. "

Some brief thoughts, which may or may not be true:

If you bought the products at US retail, then I don''t see possibly how it could be illegal to resell them, unless they are sold as part of a package clearly labelled as ''not for resale'', etc. Otherwise, whatever physical product you buy as a consumer, I am sure you are able to resell however you like.

Note also, that there might be applicable taxes in bringing the products into the UK, which often would negate the worth of buying at retail just to sell on at retail. However, a few products might still be profitable this way: computer peripherals, for example, are anything up to 40% cheaper at retail in the US.

If however, you bought the products at US wholesale prices, then perhaps whoever sold them to you is actually the one who broke a distribution agreement, and therefore it''s their problem. They in turn could possibly argue that you misled them as to where you would resell the products you bought, which might be one case where you did do something that broke a contract. eg. They sold to you on the assumption that they would be resold in the US, and you then took them to the UK, breaking the agreement you had with the wholesaler.

Personally, I think that the only law that covers this sort of thing is contract law: it seems like companies like to be able to negotiate their own distribution terms on a per-territory basis, getting away with higher profits where they can, knowing that without significant importing/exporting to create competition, they''ll get away with it. (eg. The price of CDs is way higher in Europe and the UK than in the US, but even so, record companies are currently being taken to court over having CD prices too high over there. Prices -are- too high, but due to the difficulty of getting US versions of CDs in the UK, there is no incentive for retailers to lower UK prices.)