http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/21/cd-wow_loses_parallel_importing_case/
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That offence is called parallel importing and involves a breach of copyright. CD WOW! had previously promised to a court not to engage in parallel importing.
"This judgment confirms that CD WOW have not only consistently flouted the law in their business practices, but have flagrantly ignored the undertakings that they themselves gave to the Court that they would trade legally," said BPI general counsel Roz Groome.
The case, which has been running for six years, centred on CD WOW!'s sale of CDs and DVDs for significantly less than High Street prices. The company sold its CDs from a warehouse in Hong Kong, where CDs are sold for less than they are in Europe."
What happens is that a store can purchase goods from outside the EU (say the USA or in this case Hong Kong) pay for them to be shipped from wherever, and sell them at a profit in the UK at a much lower price than the producers want to sell their goods to stores in the UK.
What do the producers use to beat the retailers? Copyright law. Now these goods are not pirate goods, not stollen all they are is cheaper than are usually sold in the UK. The same thing happens with jeans imported from the US because the producers want to rip-off EEC citizens. In the US they wouldn't get away with this kind of abuse of copyright laws, so why is the EC allowing it here?
There is no wonder that people pirate their music, or designer goods when this kind of price fixing is happening. In the modern world there is no excuse for selling at different prices into markets that are protected by enhanced copyright laws. Write to your MEP and object.
