Grey Market Importing

[Gracia]

Hello all,

I have recently been doing some research into importing and then selling here in the UK via the internet. I am looking into purchasing small electronic goods (mainly computer peripherals). I am aware of the thousands of manufacturers in China who sell counterfeit products at very low prices - this is n't the issue though.

I have managed to find a company that manufacturers genuine branded products and sells them at low prices. However, I have found out that buying direct from them would be considered the 'grey' market' as really the original manufacturer would prefer me to buy from one of their registered distributors (and pay 3 times the price).

My questions:

1) Is it completely legal to sell 'grey market' goods?
2) When selling them, do I have to state that they are 'grey market' goods?

I appreciate any advice that you can give me but please don't guess the answers - to help me and others reading the forum.

Thanks!:)

[Barnie]

when you say you found a manufacture that makes branded products do you mean this is the oem/odm factory

if so they cannot put the name on without authorisation of the brand, so its down to who owns the brand

you can however put your own name on the product if the brand manufacture has no rights on the design, pretty comen these days

[Gracia]

well, the company say they can accept OEM or ODM orders. To be honest, although I know the terms I'm still not completely sure on what is what. However, I purchased a test order of only 5 products and verified the product codes which suggests they are genuine products. From this I assume that the companya re making genuine products but are not selling them through the 'preferred' distribution channels and therefore the goods are classified as the 'grey market'...

[Naughty Vend]

Just be sure they are what they appear to be...

I would be very surprised that a manufacturer with a contract between them and a major brand would risk breaching that contract by producing the exact same goods and selling them direct, i.e. not through the wholesale distribution channel.

Would you risk losing the business of perhaps hundreds of thousands or millions of units just to make some profit from a smaller retailer such as yourself? Even if bearing a different logo you'd expect that the design of the product would carry multiple patents on a global basis, it seems likely that these products you've been offered are just direct copies and / or longevity of supply may become an issue.

Be careful with this one, enforcement of the law in some countries is not as vigilant as you might expect it to be.