eBay heeft gisteren 750.000 handtekeningen (!) van Europese burgers aangeboden bij het Europees Parlement om zijn onvrede kenbaar te maken over de huidige online handelsregels (zie: ‘eBay begint EU-verzet tegen grootmacht fabrikanten‘).
Het bedrijf hoopt dat nieuwe EU-regels voorkomen dat fabrikanten uit de offline wereld aan webwinkeliers voorschrijven onder welke voorwaarden zij hun online handel bedrijven.
Retail Week schrijft:
“(…) It has called for greater clarity and support for cross-border internet sales in Europe and wants the way offline and online channels are treated for distribution to be the same.
Many brands appose this at they feel they lose control of how their product are sold and eBay has had several high profile court battles with many brands including jewellery brand Tiffany and luxury group LVMH over counterfeit goods which have found their way onto the site.
EBay director general Alex von Schirmeister said: “EBay was built on a simple idea – that it could empower individuals by building a global marketplace where practically anyone could buy or sell practically anything.
“Unfortunately, that idea is under threat from certain brand owners and manufacturers who are trying to block and restrict unfairly the sale of legitimate products on the internet. (…)”
Foto: manifoldramification (cc)
Een gewaardeerde lezer zet echter scherpe kanttekeningen bij deze maatregel: