Court leaves buyers in legal limbo on grey market goods_2
19 July 2012
Buyers of parallel imports are no clearer on the legality of “grey market” supplies after the European Court of Justice’s ambiguous initial verdict on Tesco’s sale of cut-price Levi’s jeans.
Both companies claimed victory from the advocate-general’s recommendations to the court, which recognised “the right of the trademark proprietor freely to determine the conditions under which he wishes to market his product and control its distribution”, while conceding, “importers have interests which merit protection and which must be taken into account”.
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