Legalizing parallel import will improve competitive environment on the market

A FAS representative Yana Sklyarova reminded about it on 25 April 2016 at the IX International Forum – Intellectual Property – the XXI century”. One of the main lines of the discussion at the Round Table about the “Balance of the rights of foreign companies for intellectual property and the interests of Russian Consumers”, organized by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation  was the prospects of legalizing parallel import.

Deputy Head of FAS Department for Control over Advertising and Unfair Competition, Yana Sklyarova, and и IP-ombudsmen Anatoly Semyonov, put forward the arguments to support the initiative. “For several years FAS has been pointing out that legalizing parallel import will improve competitive environment on the market, and strengthening competition, in its turn, will give consumers an extended range of branded products and reduce prices”, said Yana Sklyarova.

Members of the legal community and businessmen highlighted traditional concerns related to the risks of legalizing parallel import. For instance, the Chairman of “Public Consumer Initiative and a representative from “PATENTUS” suspected that in the future it “would increase the gray sector of the economy, counterfeit products and decrease the number of official importers (which also means reduced revenue to the budget), and restrict consumer rights for warranty service”.

In response, FAS representative drew attention to the proposed legal and organizational remedies to neutralize possible risks, including tightened customs control over imported goods. Neither authorities, nor competitors, however,  must forget about the bona fide presumption of market participants prepared to do legal and efficient business in the format of “parallel import”. She emphasized that international experience should be not be ignored in an attempt to improve the law: guaranteeing protection of exclusive rights, European and US judicial and administrative practices nevertheless find that economic restrictions and bans on cross-border circulation of original goods of right-holders, legally acquired by importers, are unfair.