Exclusive agent for a manufacturere. how to stop others selling my product without permission?
Hi,
I have an exclusive agency agreement with a manufacturer to be their sole distributor in the UK. When I went to sell this product on amazon I have seen a few people already selling the same product, either from other EU countries or within the UK. Do I have any power to stop these being sold on Amazon without my permission?
I don’t actually mind if people sell the product, as long as they purchase it through the authorised distributor (me) in future.
Exclusive agent for a manufacturere. how to stop others selling my product without permission?
Hi,
I have an exclusive agency agreement with a manufacturer to be their sole distributor in the UK. When I went to sell this product on amazon I have seen a few people already selling the same product, either from other EU countries or within the UK. Do I have any power to stop these being sold on Amazon without my permission?
I don’t actually mind if people sell the product, as long as they purchase it through the authorised distributor (me) in future.
25 replies
Seller_EHYOwAkoZV3Hb
Review the full details of your agency agreement and decide whether you are able to persuade the manufacturer to do anything regarding other distributors they supply. Maybe they can stop those sales and your competitor’s supplies will eventually dry up.
Seller_DJCaLsroslyPV
I realise that hindsight is 20/20 but, these are the sort of issues that you need to get agreed before signing any sort of contract. And without any knowledge of the agreement itself it would be very difficult for anyone to give a definitive answer.
Maybe your agreement gives you sole rights to distribution in the UK, but doesn’t prohibit the sale of the items into the UK from Europe, and do those rights just apply to distribution and not retail? See how it’s impossible to know without knowing the detail.
Whatever the case, unless the product is one which will make you a mint, getting involved in costly legal disputes regarding rights is not something to be taken lightly. As Rugsy suggested, you’ll really need to get the manufacturer of the items involved, and see what they feel about all of this.
Good luck.
Seller_BaKlbNPPP2e2W
It does. Hence why I am chasing this. While I understand that some of these products were purchased before our exclusive agency agreement with the manufacturer and its not their fault that we are now exclusive distributors in the UK, we have an obligation to ensure that the brand name is not damaged with regards to selling within the UK market, and we have seen some people selling this product at rediculous prices which we are trying to stop. I have sent a few cease and desist letters to retailers with regards to this product and some have taken the product off their listings. We are only trying to stop sale within the Amazon UK marketplace as that is where our power is. We are not complaining out sale of the product in non UK marketplaces.
Amazon themselves also sell this product for which we have kindly requested they cease for now until such time as we give authorisation to sell.
I wanted to try to get this resolved internally, in a non-intrusive manner before getting said manufacturer as is our rights with regards to the contract signed with them.
Thanks
Seller_sKHMPjLBFuIsG
I have the feeling that any “exclusive” / “sole distributor” and similar are actually against the competition law? Any company willing to spend the same amount of money should be able to buy in the same conditions like your company. That’s why it’s called free market after all.
We all understand that it will be nice that a company it’s the only distributor for a certain region and therefore is able to safeguard it’s sales margin / profit… but it’s not working like that for many many years.
Amazon itself will encourage the competition in order to drive the prices down.
Anyway, good luck in your fight it will be a very long one.
Seller_rZax50qrWcaoG
Interested to know if you buy this (or these) items from China?
I would tread very carefully with other sellers and Amazon about threats of infringement or rights for resale, as all you have is (it appears) is an agreement of some sort with the manufacturer. You do not own any IP rights, therefore, any complaint must come directly from the manufacturer, and then only if they own the rights to the item(s) being sold.
Any seller you have reported could, and probably will, take action against you for making false IP rights claims, which in turn could shut down your account.
Seller_QlN0mmCAFPtjZ
The issue is between yourself and the manufacturer . Just speaking off the top but , you may have the exclusive rights to sell within the UK , however if a customer from the UK visits the Amazon store of a European seller , than I do not see how that can be a violation of your agreement .
Its similar to me visiting a big Mac in Glasgow and making a purchase even though I may live in Mayfair . The Glasgow based Big Mac cannot come into Mayfair to sales his burgers , but nothing stops a Mayfair Resident from visiting a Glasgow Big Mac
Seller_9vYzAspLN0bEC
Most Seller forget that within Europe you can sell products in any EU country unless, mainly for UK product need an electrical plug and the item do not come with the correct cable or plug thats why some companies provide UK / Euro cable . You do not need to buy from the UK distributor only to sell within the UK.
How are you going to stop some one buying it from other EU countries and selling them in the UK?
As long as product is not fake not much you can do.
Seller_0pkMTMROIPEmY
You can Brand Register the product with a letter of authorisation from the brand owner , we have done this through Brand Registry it’s simple , Amazon provide the template Authorisation letter. Once submitted it takes 4 weeks. This is the way to go in this situation based on the OP’s statements given.
Seller_0pkMTMROIPEmY
This may not be Amazon themselves selling it, as such, it’s a very simple process for another Seller to setup a Vendor Express account, if there are no restrictions on the catergory or product Amazon will normally order 2 units which appear as sold By Amazon under the same ASIN/EAN , there are obviously risks in doing this Amazon can return the product to the vendor for any reason, a Vendor account has far more return issues than a Seller account which is why we switched some years ago.
