Parallel Sales and Selective Distribution: Regulatory Reliefs and Brand Protection

Parallel sales in distribution systems are a relevant and complex topic in antitrust law, having very significant practical impacts on commercial policies at all levels of the distribution chain. This phenomenon takes on a particularly central role in selective distribution, a form of sales organisation in which the supplier establishes...

Selective online distribution: the Amazon.it case.

1. Selective distribution: the regulatory and jurisprudential context. Starting from the assumption that the aim of every manufacturer is to maximise its profit, there are cases in which this objective can only be achieved by limiting access to the official sales network to distributors and resellers who meet particular requirements, so as to protect the image of the manufacturer...

Selective and exclusive distribution: does the mixed system work?

What happens if a manufacturer applies a mixed system (selective and exclusive distribution) within Europe? What are the main advantages and disadvantages? As already noted, the European legislator has always been committed to balancing the principle of free trade of goods goods and the interest of producers in creating competitive distribution networks. competitive....

Selective distribution. A brief overview: risks and benefits.

Certain products, depending on their intrinsic characteristics (e.g. the luxury sector, i.e. technically very complex products), often require a more select and careful resale system than consumer products. In such cases, the manufacturer is inclined, not so much to focus on the vastness and capillarity of its sales network, but rather to...

Management of online sales in distribution contracts and European antitrust.

The new regulation on vertical sales introduced for the first time a regulation on online sales, introducing in Art. 4(e) a general prohibition to prevent "the effective use of the internet" by the buyer or its customers to sell the contract goods or service. The previous regulation (330/2010) did not directly regulate any restrictions...

Parallel sales and the principle of brand exhaustion.

Can unauthorised distributors make parallel sales? When can one make use of the principle of brand exhaustion? The Amazon, Sisley and L'Oréal cases. As has already been explained (see The selective distribution. A brief overview: risks and advantages), selective selective distribution has the function of protecting the marketing of products that, in...

Parallel Sales in the EU. When and to what extent can a manufacturer control them?

When we speak of parallel sales, we are referring to imports that take place alongside those made by an 'official', i.e. territorially competent, importer: parallel traders enter the market reserved for exclusive distributors, without having direct access to the supplier, who only supplies authorised dealers. Parallel trade,...

Can a manufacturer prevent its distributors from selling online?

When is it possible to block the online sales of distributors or members of one's own sales network? Active sales, passive sales, geoblocking... Let's have some clarity! E-commerce is undoubtedly a tool that has extraordinary potential: it allows you to address a very wide range of users, to target offers with great precision at categories of customers, and to...