EU: Restrictions on branded goods

Sweden, Finland, Denmark and the United Kingdom are pressing the EC to scale down trademark restrictions on branded goods imported into the EU. They claim this hinders free trade and harms consumers. The EC is waiting for the publication of a study into the economic impact of parallel imports, early next year. This followed an ECJ ruling that under 1989 EU law, once trademark owners put products on the market in the European Economic Area (EEA), they could not control where they were bought and sold. However, this rule did not apply to goods brought in from outside the EEA area, which accounts for about 40% of world trade, through what is known as the ‘grey’ market.