Scandal

It could be alledged that the only impact it can have on Tamrons business, is if it is charging more for products in the end country than it is in the source country. That is to say it makes more profit in one market than another.
Of course if they were sold to end users as being "officially sourced" or if they were fake then that is another matter.
But to buy a piece of equipment in one country and sell it in another............
why should that be illegal per se?

Response to Scandal post

Actually Grey import is not to do with the profts of the one company its to do with not paying the taxes levied on items by customs and excise et al.

As someone who recently used to work in an indie camera shop until closure I can tell you our margins where amazingly tight, often around the 10% mark (if we were lucky! On higher ticket DSLRs we would often only make 20 quid or so!)

The reasons for this is that the general public mainly shop by the price alone. if someone is bringing in items at 17.5% less than you can, they buy from them.

Why should it b illegal? Becuase it keeps trade fair for traders in this country
I know some people prefer to buy things over the net so its no issue where the store itself is based, but I prefer to have somewhere I can go to and talk about kit with people who know, in person.

We do get a raw deal on prices sometimes here I don;t deny that, but its naive to say that its all down to profiteering by companies,

As much as we all hate taxes, they are there for a reason, and it is illegal not to pay them, I for one am glad that Tamron have done this and are helping to protect their UK customers,

Maybe we will see less of the small traders being forced out by grey imports now.

Odd

This is the same situation that one of our supermarkets had with a certain Jeans company.

Grey imports were never illegal in the UK. However once the EEC became the EU, the French perfume and fashion companies fought and won exemptions to the free market economy in order to prevent grey imports. Those exemptions are now being applied to other products. Ironically, free movement of products is specifically allowed within the EU, in fact the shoe is on the other foot and multinationals face huge fines if they try to fix prices in different member states.

We need a government to fight this barrier to free trade that allows multi-national to price the EU above other parts of the world. No politician can argue that it is in our interest not to expose ourselves to a world wide market. We got rid of all retail price and the book pricing agreement yet we are now signed up to this insidious piece of legislation.

Grey importing

Some years ago I was one of 3 known grey importers of Amateur Radio Equpment into the UK, Grey importing is not illegal providing it is not fake. By doing this it bought the prices down by about 20%. All products were properly imported with all duties paid and was in free circulation within the EEC.

The products were Japanese supplied by Japan to importers who sold them onto shops to sell to clients, Buy importing direct it made Japan think and the manufacturers did away with the middle man and set up distribution here and supplied the shops, therefore making the product 20% cheaper.

Now with Tamron having a go I think someone should have a complaint about Apple's price fixing, everywhere you go it is all the same price. Long live grey imports, if it wasn't for them you would be paying through the nose.