Canon is suing well-known eBay sellers to stop grey import sales in the USA

Photography Bay reports that Canon USA filed lawsuits against several well-known grey market retailers, among them Get It Digital and All New Shop. This appears to be an effort to stop these retailers from selling imported, and hence often significantly discounted, Canon DSLRs in the USA.

Both cases have been filed at the New York Eastern District Court, Canon U.S.A. Inc. v. Get It Digital LLC et al and Canon U.S.A. Inc. v. F & E Trading LLC et al, on October 20, 2015. Photography Bay claims to have copies of the complaints filed by Canon. According to Photography Bay, Canon sees the following possible harms for customers:

• Using counterfeit serial numbers on gray market Canon products
• Lack of enforceable warranties or inferior warranty coverage
• Packaging that does not accurately describe the products contained therein
• The inclusion of cheap photocopies of product operating manuals, as opposed to genuine manuals that accompany genuine Canon cameras
• Power supplies and accessories that are counterfeit, manufactured by third partes and/or not compliant with applicable laws, regulations and certifications

The most worrying of the allegations listed above is the possibility of counterfeit serial numbers, and all what it might imply.

Please note: Some of the retailers Canon is suing have been featured here in the past. Given these news I can no longer recommend these retailers. However, in all these years I heard only one complaint from customers, and it was about being late with shipping.

To learn more about this story head over to Photography Bay…