Attempts to Apply Selective Distribution Principle to Online Luxury Sales {Fragrance News}

According to Bloomberg, the core idea of a ratio of luxury goods including perfume that would be available for sale on the internet vs. brick-and-mortar stores has been approved by the EU commission examining complaints from the industry. Luxury brands LVMH and Chanel have been battling to control the flow of their products on the internet with eBay being a prime target of their actions...


From the standpoint of a luxury spokesperson, the wording is even stronger willingly creating an overlap and analogy between the idea of a genuine luxury product being sold outside of a system of careful distribution control and counterfeit goods,

"Selective distribution, whether real or virtual, has always been fundamental for luxury brands," Andrea Ciccoli, a fashion industry analyst for Bain & Co. in Milan, said in an interview about an earlier version of the law. "Not just anyone can sell products by Chanel and Prada in stores and there's no reason why they should be able to on the Web. It would be like giving people a license to print money." [...]

However, the reach of the EU decision is limited in the scope of its application,

"According to the plan, companies will no longer be able to stop an Internet retailer from selling their goods in countries where there isn't a distribution system."

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