At a time when everyone is seeking a bargain, Internet consumers should be aware that not every deal is a steal and the goods may not be up to the job!
During the last two years Makita (UK) together with Cerberus Investigations have successfully targeted an influx of parallel (grey) imports of their premium power tool range into the United Kingdom from the United States, Europe and Asia. In total, over 2500 infringing auction listings have been removed from eBay.co.uk.
Parallel Imports are genuine products made by a company which are sold within a territory where they are either not intended to be sold, not compatible or because the company has local distributers to sell their products. Imported tools themselves pose serious health and safety issues for users where the plugs do not fit and the power supply conflicts with the UK's 240v system forcing the buyer to have to spend more money on transformer plugs. While being cheaper in price, imported goods do not guarantee a good buy since these goods often invalidate their warranty meaning if a tool becomes faulty the buyer would have to send the tool back to the country of origin for repair.
The other major issues with imported foreign products is that they undercut legitimate UK retailers which can damage home grown profits and also the reputations for the manufacturer - if tools go wrong or even fail to arrive and the customer is left out of pocket when the foreign seller is unwilling to help because they have no obligation and often do not care since they’ve already been paid.
Using eBay's VeRO Programme which gives Right's Owners the ability to shut down infringing auctions, Makita and Cerberus have successfully reduced the number of imported tools being sold on eBay within the United Kingdom to zero.
As soon as imported tools appear in eBay listings of UK or foreign sellers, Cerberus initiates a Notice of Claimed Infringement and the auctions are removed within a matter of hours. Cerberus even monitors eBay at weekends to target two day flash auctions.
This success has been achieved by maintaining a constant presence on eBay, searching for specific keywords and using the human eye to spot infringements in photographs often missed by programme-led monitoring systems.
Imported Makita tools have been driven from the auction site which protects both consumers and Makita UK Limited from unscrupulous sellers.
Commenting on the programme, Charles Cookman, Financial Controller at Makita (UK) Limited states “Makita (UK) Ltd believes that grey imports are bad for our customers since they infringe health and safety legislation and provide no warranty. The service we have received from Cerberus has been excellent, with their knowledge and expertise they have efficiently stemmed the flow of the grey imports of our products into the UK.”
If your company is being affected by grey imports of your products give Cerberus Investigations a call on +44 (0) 870 351 2486 or email info@cerberusip.com for information on our fixed-fee eBay and other online auction monitoring programmes.
