[Draft 1] - Resale Price Maintenance

[Simone]

Regulation / Consumer Protection

The World Assembly (WA),

Noting that the practice of some suppliers of goods and services seek to maintain uniform prices among authorised resellers of the said products, disincentivising discounts and hurting the consumers of the said goods and services;

Desiring a uniform policy across the WA, especially to regulate parallel imports;

The WA hereby enacts as follows:

Definitions.

1. Goods includes, for convenience in this resolution, tangible goods, intangible goods and services not conventionally considered “intangible goods”.
2. OBM means the Office of Building Management.
3. Parallel imports means importing a non-counterfeit product from any other state (regardless of whether that state is a WA state) into a WA state without the permission of the intellectual property (IP) owner.
4. Reseller means anyone subject to the jurisdiction of a WA state who resells goods from a supplier.
5. Supplier means any supplier of goods subject to the jurisdiction of a WA state. It also includes anyone who owns IP rights regarding the goods, such as brand owners sub-licensing production to third parties, as well as the manufacturers themselves, and any agents acting on behalf of the brand owners or manufacturers.
6. WAHQ means the WA Headquarters.

Ban on price maintenance. No WA may permit:

1. A supplier to control prices, or set minimum or maximum prices, for resale of any goods by any reseller, regardless of whether it is authorised for such an activity by the supplier;
2. A supplier to designate certain goods as for sale for certain geographic destinations by any reseller;
3. A supplier to offer incentives, rebates, or discounts to resellers that are based on authorisation, the maintenance of prices, or restrictions on geographic destination of the goods;
4. A reseller to import and sell any goods via parallel imports, so long as that reseller complies with all other rules of that WA state.

Damages.

1. The WA declares that the sale of any goods by a supplier at any particular price, in any particular environment or through any particular channel do not amount to any form of loss for the supplier.
2. The WA declares that the import and sales of parallel imports do not amount to any form of loss for the supplier.
3. No authorities of a WA state may find damages (including liquidated damages) to result therefrom.

Agency and consignment.

1. Clause (2) does not apply if title to any inventory for goods (and the expenses and risks arising from the said goods, such as insurance) is fully retained by the supplier, and the reseller is acting merely as an agent or as a provider of retail space.
2. Clause (2) does not apply to sales of “add-ons” directly by a supplier to an end-buyer of the goods, such as after-sales services.

Duties and taxes.

1. No WA state may levy different duties, sales taxes, or any other forms of taxation on any imports of the same goods from different sources outside of that WA state, including parallel imports.
2. Sub-clause (5)(a) does not affect sub-national differences in taxation widely applied, such as differences in provincial sales taxes or local duties on alcohol sales.
3. The WA hereby declares any deviation from sub-clause (5)(a) to be discriminatory.

Jurisdiction.

1. Sub-clauses (2)(b) and (2)(c) do not interfere with any rules on sales of goods on the grounds of health, safety, suitability, or fitness for a particular purpose.
2. Clauses (2) to (5) also apply to retailers within WAHQ and shipments of goods to the WAHQ.
3. Each WA state is responsible for interpretation and enforcement of this resolution, and penalties for violations thereof. For goods sold within the WAHQ, OBM is responsible.