Following the €38million fine imposed on eBay earlier this week by the French courts in the LVMH case it’s not taken long for other manufacturers restrictions to hit the headlines.
Maclaren, Bugaboo and Mamas & Papas have all introduced measures to prevent new pushchairs being sold on eBay.
Maclaren cites safety concerns over imports which don’t meet UK safety standards and have introduced an internet sales policy that bans all eBay sales. Bugaboo refuse to supply sellers who sell their products on eBay and purchases from any unauthorised retailer invalidates their warranty. Mamas & Papas are writing to all of their retailers insisiting that from September they must have written approval prior to selling online. They also have a no-returns policy for retailers who sell through 3rd party websites.
If more companies join those already restricting trade on eBay then it will turn into a flea market for unbranded and second hand goods. That’s not what buyers want today and eBay need to offer buyers depth of inventory and a wide selection of products and that includes designer clothing, perfume and pushchairs.
Yesterday it was Louis Vuitton, today it’s baby buggies, tomorrow it may be your manufacturer that pulls the plug on eBay.
34 Responses
These brands can already be bought on Amazon.com and the UK site so no big problem. It simply means they won’t be sold cheaply on eBay, except by retailers doing close outs and reducing dead inventory.
You mean it’s price fixing through the back door? :O
It *is* a big problem because if all manufacturers followed suit there’d be no branded new goods left on eBay which is why a lot of buyers use the site. 🙁
I think alot of people left because they didn’t know if they were buying a brand or a copy of a brand.
I think you are right, it is price fixing via the back door.
It is a bit like Levis stopping the likes of Tescos selling there branded jeans cheap in there stores. I can see more and more manufactures especially in the clothes market jumping on board with these restrictions.
Maybe we will see the manufactures selling directly on eBay?
Sean
This gets to the crux of what the LVMH case is all about: lots of big brands just don’t want their goods on eBay.
#4 “Maybe we will see the manufactures selling directly on eBay?” not if they want to keep there retailers on board.
#5 “lots of big brands just don’t want their goods on eBay.” particularly the low value fakes that destroy brand value.
I just think its headlines hitting headlines, it’s like when someone gets biten by a dog and its on the news, the next few weeks it seems loads of people are as well.
Brands will always need to clear dead stock, you just have to look at the success of TXMax for that, they are romping away with growth so I don’t think it will effect ebay in a big way, its some people at big brands throwing their toys out of the pram
Stu
You’re almost certainly right about the headlines Stuart, but unfortunately the more it’s in the news the more manufacturers will think about restricting the sale of their products on eBay either directly or through anti-competitive restrictive sales practices 🙁
lots of big brands dont want their goods on ebay
because they get what their worth
#7 If you spend millions of pounds developing a brand you have a right to protect it, I don’t think anyone is throwing any toys.
I can go onto eBay now and buy a fake Rolex, if Rolex decide to ban the sale of Rolex’s on eBay would you blame them? I wouldn’t, why should the value of there product be destroyed? How would Rolex be restricting trade? surely this is about cheap fakes destroying brand value.
eBay have dug themselves a monumental hole over the years, the kicking they are getting at the moment was inevitable.
tell ya what whirly
I bet you cant buy a fake Rolex off ebay or just about any other fake watch either
we regularly list Rolex and Omega watchs etc
its often 2 or 3 days before they show on search because they are veted so closely
if my brand was worth it, I would do as Rolex do, maintain my copyright and brand integrity and let ebay sell me truck loads
I am pleased to say you are right Norf, I had a 5 minute search for some dodgy lolly and couldn’t find one item.
It was last year I think that eBay lost a 6 year battle with Rolex, it seems to have worked, even though eBay had to be forced to clean up looks like they have, credit were credit is due.
these days if you list a rolex watch on ebay
you get so many warnings and flashing lights, you half expect a swat team to bust in the door to check the watch 😯
Thats good to know Norf.
In the longterm these events have the potential to damage the eBay brand.
I think this may force eBay to spend more £ on monitoring its listings, in the past they have relied on us to much, this would mean a cut in margins but its essential they get the head count up in the trust & safety office.
The bigger issue is that it will raise concerns among its customers about what is real and what is fake on the site. When you buy online you need faith and trust in the site you use.
https://pages.ebay.co.uk/fightingcounterfeits/
As seen on the UK homepage.
I think alot of this comes down to vetting sellers more in certain areas, like amazon do?? maybe its to late now for ebay to do this?
I have my own brand name now, I haven’t spent millions on it! but its still a brand that im building and have sellers selling my items on ebay and think it helps with word of mouth.
It’s a tough one, im not sure you can ever truly stop it on the kind of site that ebay is, only crack down on it! (but in a careful way not in the current bullish way they have been)
#17 “I have my own brand name now, I haven’t spent millions on it! but its still a brand that im building and have sellers selling my items on ebay and think it helps with word of mouth.”
Thats good and I hope your very successful with it Stuart. Selling on eBay will definately get your product noticed, but what if someone starts selling copies of your product at drastically reduced prices ? what happens to the value of your product then, say you sell at £100.00 and someone comes along with a copy of your product for £20.00 will that damage the value of your brand?Yes.
Lets say then you decide you no longer want this to happen so for arguements sake you stop eBay from brokering your products, now are you restricting trade as some will make out or are you protecting your brand?
I can buy fakes at just about any fair or market place in just about any big town in europe
have you just simply tried walking around Rome lately?
if they were regulated better ebay might not have such a big problem with fakes
#18 Now I am plucking the following figures out of thin air, but I think the real problem is with manufacturers over inflating the value of trinkets. In your example, a fake cost £20 which probably cost £5 to manufacture. The original/genuine item cost £100 and probably cost £7 to manufacture and £7 to pay some slick Porsche driving marketing product enhancement group to dream up ways of skinning the hard working public of their cash for something which is essentially the same. Result the genuine “premium” product attracts a very fat margin. The problem with that is consumers will find ways of paying what they think the product is ACTUALLY worth, leaving the brand owner to resort to un-sportsman like behaviour and market “nobbling” as mentioned in the case above.
This is in fact the problem, not the fakes, but the greedy manufacturers who are not satisfied with a “fair” profit and don’t want to leave any margin for the next guy/gal!
#19 “I can buy fakes at just about any fair or market place in just about any big town in europe” but you know they are fakes norf, if you walk down the Old Kent Road(not been to Rome) and buy 2 bottles of channel perfume for £10 you are not going to be surprised if you end up smelling like a dead rat or your skin starts turning green, sellers online don’t normally specify that its a cheap copy in a fancy box.
I hear what your saying whirly, I don’t know what the answer is, but what we are trying to do is stay one step ahead of them copying us. We have fast moving designs so 90% as it sells out new designs come in, this means if they try to copy then there copying something we don’t sell anymore!
I do agree with brands restricting sale of their goods and why not! I only sell to one store in one town, I might get a bigger store come along and want our products but then I have already agreed with a smaller one, it could be seen as a loss by some people, but we see it as giving our brand a better value.
I think some brands more than others need to restrict the sale of their goods on ebay, and why shouldn’t they its no different to dealing with clothing brands, most of the time you have to jump through hoops just to get them into your store, because their careful who they sell to.
It’s fake’s that ebay have to clamp down on, god knows how but they need to
#20 I am a manufacturer and I am certainly not greedy, It is increasingly difficult for manufacturers in developed economies to earn reasonable profits, the uk manufacturing industry has been in decline for decades.
Does eBay make a fair profit?
dougs letter on the homepage puts it well
If you buy something on eBay and discover its a fake and open up a dispute with eBay/Paypal what happens to the item?
if walks like a duck ,quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck,
you can bet it is a duck,
dont matter if its on ebay, or paddling around its pond
if I tip up the dosh to some spiv on the old kent rd
thats it gone never to be seen again
if I pay by paypal on ebay
your money can be back in ya pocket quite soon
lol
EBay won’t become a flea market for unbranded and second hand goods. EBay has been working for some years now to make sure that sellers of unbranded and second hand goods are off the site. They’ve been quite deliberately making it difficult for smaller sellers, and most of the second hand and unbranded new items are sold by smaller sellers from what I’ve seen.
EBay can’t be a flea market, and it’s going to soon be somewhere that you can’t sell many brands. So what’s left? Fakes and frauds?
It’s true that there are a lot of wholesalers who simply will not sell to you if you sell on eBay. They don’t want their products associated with the fakes and frauds and flea market.
#4 Maybe we will see the manufactures selling directly on eBay?
It’s already happening on the US site.
https://blog.cardomain.com/blog/2008/02/the-gm-ebay-swe.html
its been going on for years long before ebay
many big brands have always restricted who they sell too
if ebay was not so “dodgy” then this would never have happened.
they allowed pirate crap on ebay for years and only reacted when it was too late.
its what happens when idiots are in charge of a big company ,,,,,, it slowly turns into a small company.
If I had a decent brand , I would not want it anywhere near ebay.
#31 Does that mean your Fine Art Prints are a load of old pony Jon?
(joke)
#31 Equally if the manufacturers had been able to control cheap knock offs flooding off-eBay markets even before eBay existed and if Customs had prevented the crap entering the country it would never have been a problem on eBay in the first place.
If people selling knock offs had been prosecuted and the punishments been made so severe it wasn’t worth the possible profits they wouldn’t have been hawked around for years.
It’s not just an eBay problem, and neither are restrictive trade practices – they’re also an issue for every seller out there both on and off-eBay because once manufacturers start flexing their muscles and getting away with it then more will follow suit.
What’s supposed to be an open market both in the EU and on the Internet has the potential to be crippled to the detriment of sellers being unable to make a living and buyers being unable to find genuine quality goods at the best prices.
This has been happening for years. I was an ebay seller and was hauled into the office of the McLaren seller in the country I reside. I was told that I was ‘eBay scum’ even though my numbers were as many as my bricks and mortar rival, my price was ultimately the same (if not higher when you add in the postage and handling). His reasons were that I was degrading the brand, and giving the perception of a ‘bargain’ even though this was not the case. We offered a service to those mums that could not get to a traditional store to purchase a good quality brand at the same if not slightly better price. We further stood behind the manufacturers warranty, had full customer service support and telephone support. Instead of putting all eBay sellers in the one bucket perhaps these brands should start looking beyond their own noses to the growth of technology.
Convenience, shopping at anytime and the price of petrol means that online will be the way of the future. In my mind it is simply a form of retail price maintenance.
Trying to explain to them the benefits of seeing their product, brand name and information across the world means nothing to these narrow minded suppliers.