Tuesday, 1 March 2011

M'Learned Friends - Again


Another day, another legal spat between wargaming companies carried out in public, with the usual incorportaion of personal abuse.

Battlefront Games of New Zealand, Flames of War, have elected to refuse to supply Maelstrom Games with their products because they don't like Maelstrom discounting.

http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/2011/02/25/44118

http://www.maelstromgames.co.uk/downloads/Public_Statement_Regarding_Battlefront_Miniatures.pdf

This has caused pointless internet speculation about the rights and wrongs of the matter.

Battlefront claim to be 'protecting small FLGS' against 'unfair' competition from internet-based companies.

None of this matters.

Have you ever wondered why GW supplies internet companies who undercut prices in GW stores and its own internet site? The reason is simple. They don't want to be prosecuted by the state for restrictive practices and price fixing. The financial penalties can be severe.

You can price fix in the UK. The car companies notoriously run a price fixing cartel for private buyers and perfume manufacturers price fix. That is because they have the clout with a national government to get an exemption through Brussels. I doubt Battlefront have that sort of influence.

The rights and wrongs of the matter are irrelevent. The law decides. UK law says a manufacturer cannot price fix.
at

6 comments:

  1. Igi1 March 2011 at 12:01

    Hmm not good news. Maelstrom is one of the only companies who allows us barbarian Hunky-s to order (GW does not). Hope they keep the GW stock.

    ReplyDelete
  2. John Lambshead1 March 2011 at 12:29

    GW won't ship to Hungary???
    What have they got against you?
    J

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Angry Lurker1 March 2011 at 17:33

    I go where the cheapest prices are but this is wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  4. John Lambshead2 March 2011 at 08:29

    Dear Lurker
    Hobbycraft were selling off FoW stuff at large discounts recently.
    John

    ReplyDelete
  5. Igi3 March 2011 at 08:47

    They claim too many visa and debt card frauds happen here (not sure it is true). The one major shop which sells GW stuff here had an agreement with them. They could mail order and then give it to the customer. But last year GW withdraw that option and refused to tell why. Still they allow the shop to restock. The irony is FW has no problem with us (altough it is waaay to expensive to me). And other not 40k related major companies like Amazon has no problem.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Allan and Carmen3 March 2011 at 11:53

    It is too expensive to order FoW locally.

    I only ordered through Maelstrom because of the free shipping etc. I may look at Wayland games or similar.

    The way Battlefront went about it was very unprofessional. Announcing on the Web and not notifying the retailer?

    Nothing like burning bridges is there :)

    Happy Gaming,

    Allan

    ReplyDelete