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HP clamps down on grey market with new programme
Vendor’s new initiative requires distributors and resellers to track product serial numbers on all sales
Hewlett
Packard (HP) has launched a Serial Number Tracking Programme in a bid
to crack down further on grey market activities.The vendor claims the
campaign, which requires distributors and resellers to track product
serial numbers on all sales and delivery documentation, makes it easier
to investigate abuse.In addition to the programme, HP has settled a
legal action filed against Danish distributor Bluecom Denmark, which
was caught illegally importing products. As a result of a court-ordered
seizure and examination of Bluecom’s stock and bookkeeping records,
Bluecom is paying damages to HP and surrendering all illegal products
recovered. The distributor is also being required to undertake measures
to ensure it will not import HP products from outside the European
Economic Area in the future.Dave Poskett, director, HP Solution
Partners Organisation UK and Ireland said: “HP takes grey marketing
very seriously. We owe it to our partners to help protect their
position in this competitive marketplace, and we owe it to our
customers to ensure that the HP products they buy meet our standards
for quality and reliability.”HP crosses out parallel trader
Rubbing out grey marketing
HP
has wrapped up one of three lawsuits it has filed against channel firms
in the last 18 months for “grey market” trading.It also imposed more
red tape on its official partners, requiring them to “track product
serial numbers on all sales and delivery documentation” so it can tell
easily if they have been selling grey goods when it seizes their
books.The vendor said this week it had reached a settlement with the
Danish distributor Bluecom, which it had taken to “defend partners and
customers”.HP refers to the parallel trading conducted by Bluecom as
grey market “fraud”.However, it refused to comment any further about
parallel trading, Bluecom or anything else for that matter.That’s a
shame because it might have been able to explain what was different
about the serial number tracking scheme it announced this week (in
conjunction with the announcement that it had settled its lawsuit
against Bluecom) and the one it announced in December (in conjunction
with the announcement that it had raided Bluecom’s offices).When HP
raided Bluecom it told trade magazine MicroScope that it had been the
result of a serial number tracking system it had recently
established.In this week’s statement, HP announced the launch of a
serial number tracking programme. HP refused to elaborate as usual. All
we know is from the prepared statement, which gives the impression that
it will involve the imposition of more red tape on its channel
“partners”, if it is anything new at all. The programmed requires, it
said, “distributors and resellers to track product serial numbers on
sales and delivery documentation to make it easier to investigate
abuses.”It is usual in parallel, or “grey” trading for customers to
enjoy low prices and for resellers to enjoy free trade. But brand
owners get less income because the parallel trade involves product
moving from low price regions of the world, like South East Asia, to
high price regions like Europe.Vendors could earn another $40bn of
revenue a year and $5bn more in profit if they could stamp grey market
traders out entirely, according to the Alliance for Grey Market and
Counterfeit Abatement (AGMA).AGMA’s analysis of parallel trading does
not consider what benefits are gained by the local economy from the
profits earned by European parallel brokers, as opposed to the US
multinationals it supports, which reap higher profits when they can
micromanage their sales channels.According to the Parallel Traders
Association, the only reason grey imports are disallowed in Europe is
because the voting system has allowed the French and Spanish to block
any move to allow them. The French do not want to see their perfume
industry undercut by cheap imports from Asia. Yet the majority of EEA
countries are apparently in favour of allowing the free movement of
cheap imports.The big break came for brand owners like HP in 2001, when
the European Court of Justice ruled in favour of Levi Strauss & Co
against Tesco. The supermarket chain had been selling cheap jeans it
had imported from outside the EEA.
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