Legality of supplier agreements...?

[Pat Cash]

Just after some opinions on a situation I found myself in recently.

Without naming names, I needed to buy some slick tyres of a specific brand for my race car.
They are a size used on a number of different types of race car as I understand, and therefore should be freely available.
The sizes are pretty specific so I am prett much forced to use this brand of tyre.

Having found a distributor who could supply, an order was placed and tyres were in shipping. At this point, the distributor was forced by the tyre manufacturer to cancel my order and stop the shipment.

Their reasoning was that the tyre manufacturer has an agreement with the car manufacturer, that these particular tyres can only be bought through the parts dept of the car manufacturer when fitted to their cars. Of course at a 20% price premium.
So a single source of supply, based in the UK and I'm using the car 5000km away...

I am not racing in a series which requires controlled tyres and have never seen any documentation that stated that I must do this.

Obviously, manufacturers can stipulate or approve particular tyre usage as Porsche do for example with their N-rated tyres. But they do not then limit the supply only to Porsche Centres, they are available through many other sources, so there is no anti-competition arguement there.

Any opinions on the legality of such a tight control as I have come across?

Cheers!

[Test driver]

They can do as they like.

[TooMany2cvs]

Pat Cash said:

Any opinions on the legality of such a tight control as I have come across?

It's perfectly legal.

Go and find somebody who stocks <say> Jam from a specific manufacturer who also makes Tesco own-brand, and ask them to order you a case of Tesco own-brand. They won't do it. It's a product they make for a specific customer, under a contract where they've agreed to only supply Tesco with that particular product. EXACTLY the same situation.

You have two choices. Buy the tyres through the dealer or buy a different tyre. If it's not a control tyre for a specific series (which may well require you to buy through a specific supplier anyway), then it's only your preference which is "making" you buy that particular tyre.

Pat Cash said:

Having found a distributor who could supply

ITYM a distributor who _thought_ they could supply.

[Pat Cash]

TooMany2cvs said:

Pat Cash said:

Any opinions on the legality of such a tight control as I have come across?

It's perfectly legal.

Go and find somebody who stocks <say> Jam from a specific manufacturer who also makes Tesco own-brand, and ask them to order you a case of Tesco own-brand. They won't do it. It's a product they make for a specific customer, under a contract where they've agreed to only supply Tesco with that particular product. EXACTLY the same situation.

You have two choices. Buy the tyres through the dealer or buy a different tyre. If it's not a control tyre for a specific series (which may well require you to buy through a specific supplier anyway), then it's only your preference which is "making" you buy that particular tyre.

Pat Cash said:

Having found a distributor who could supply

ITYM a distributor who _thought_ they could supply.

Well, I'm not sure its as simple as that, but I like the Jam idea, so lets go with that - this is how it looks to me:

I'm able to buy Robinsons' Strawberry Jam in Tesco's and Sainsburys. They're Robinsons Tyres, not Tesco's Own... If I want to put it on Hovis toast I can buy it from Tesco's or Sainsburys, however, if I want to put it on a Tesco's Own Brand muffin, Robinsons are making me buy their jam from Tesco's.

And I think I mean a distributor who has the Robinson's jam (or at least model and sizes) advertised on their website and could order it without problem, until Robinson's found out it was going on a Tesco's muffin...

Edited to add: Actually what really happened was that I could by the jam from Sainsburys until Tescos found out that it was going on their muffin, and the MD of Tescos then told Robinsons to ask Sainsburys to cancel my online order before it had been delivered.... Which they did as Sainsburys like being a distributor...

Edited by Pat Cash on Monday 25th August 12:23

[TooMany2cvs]

Pat Cash said:

I'm able to buy Robinsons' Strawberry Jam in Tesco's and Sainsburys. They're Robinsons Tyres, not Tesco's Own... If I want to put it on Hovis toast I can buy it from Tesco's or Sainsburys, however, if I want to put it on a Tesco's Own Brand muffin, Robinsons are making me buy their jam from Tesco's.

Bad analogy. You originally said that the specific tyre is not otherwise available, because of the size required. The marque of car you're putting it on is not the issue. The size itself is. If you wanted to put that size onto a different brand of car, you'd have the same issue. If you wanted to put a different size of tyre on your car, you wouldn't.

[Pat Cash]

TooMany2cvs said:

Pat Cash said:

I'm able to buy Robinsons' Strawberry Jam in Tesco's and Sainsburys. They're Robinsons Tyres, not Tesco's Own... If I want to put it on Hovis toast I can buy it from Tesco's or Sainsburys, however, if I want to put it on a Tesco's Own Brand muffin, Robinsons are making me buy their jam from Tesco's.

Bad analogy. You originally said that the specific tyre is not otherwise available, because of the size required. The marque of car you're putting it on is not the issue. The size itself is. If you wanted to put that size onto a different brand of car, you'd have the same issue. If you wanted to put a different size of tyre on your car, you wouldn't.

No... The analogy is perfectly reasonable. The tyres are available in this size and used on many different cars.
As far as I am aware, Formula Fords and Minis for example. And my car was designed around this size of tyre.

If I was buying for my Formula Ford or my mini, the distributor could sell me the tyres in that size no problem.

However, I'm not, I'm putting them on a Tescos Muffin.... And have to buy them from Tescos, nowhere else.

[Dave_]

Might seem a silly question but why can they not just order tyres without being specific about what car they are for?

Or lie?

[Pat Cash]

Dave_ said:

Might seem a silly question but why can they not just order tyres without being specific about what car they are for?

Or lie?

Funnily enough, I need some tyres for my Formula Ford...

[TooMany2cvs]

Pat Cash said:

The tyres are available in this size and used on many different cars.

The exact size, model, spec of tyre? If so, then there's clearly no exclusive in place between the tyre manufacturer and the car manufacturer. Somebody's cocked the order up and is spinning you a line as to why.

Perhaps if you were a bit less secret-squirrel and told us what size and model of tyre?

[Pat Cash]

TooMany2cvs said:

Pat Cash said:

The tyres are available in this size and used on many different cars.

The exact size, model, spec of tyre? If so, then there's clearly no exclusive in place between the tyre manufacturer and the car manufacturer. Somebody's cocked the order up and is spinning you a line as to why.

Perhaps if you were a bit less secret-squirrel and told us what size and model of tyre?

The reason I'm being so secret-squirrel is that inadvertantly it was the MD of the car company who found out that I was ordering these tyres externally. He kicked off with their tyre supplier and its now caused quite a lot of noise within the two companies.

However, there are some things that I still need to buy from them and therefore, I don't want to completely burn my bridges by naming them on an internet forum.

[TooMany2cvs]

Pat Cash said:

The reason I'm being so secret-squirrel is that inadvertantly it was the MD of the car company who found out that I was ordering these tyres externally. He kicked off with their tyre supplier and its now caused quite a lot of noise within the two companies.

However, there are some things that I still need to buy from them and therefore, I don't want to completely burn my bridges by naming them on an internet forum.

So even if you DO manage to buy 'em elsewhere, they'll just say "Hold on... Are you not using any tyres at all?"

[Ozzie Osmond]

swerni said:

As a manufacturer you can decide who sells your product.
In your example Robinsons allow Tesco and Sainsbury to resell, the could if they chose,limit it to one.
They could even supply to Tesco that they can only buy for the use of putting it in there donuts rather than reselling the packaged product.

That example is NOT correct. Manufacturers must generally sell to anyone who wants to buy their products.

However, there is a thing called a Block Exemption for the motor industry which is seen as having benefits for consumers which exceed the anti-competitive effects. Namely the availability and quality of genuine parts is maintained for the benefit of consumers through the manufacturer's "official approved outlets".

[Ozzie Osmond]

For anyone who feels like wading through the detail, here's a link,

http://www.birketts.co.uk/resources/legal-updates/...

[Pat Cash]

TooMany2cvs said:

Pat Cash said:

The reason I'm being so secret-squirrel is that inadvertantly it was the MD of the car company who found out that I was ordering these tyres externally. He kicked off with their tyre supplier and its now caused quite a lot of noise within the two companies.

However, there are some things that I still need to buy from them and therefore, I don't want to completely burn my bridges by naming them on an internet forum.

So even if you DO manage to buy 'em elsewhere, they'll just say "Hold on... Are you not using any tyres at all?"

I don't see how not buying tyres from them and slating them for their policies on an Internet forum are comparable.

[TooMany2cvs]

Pat Cash said:

I don't see how not buying tyres from them and slating them for their policies on an Internet forum are comparable.

They want you to buy tyres from them and them alone, and politics are already leading to internal shouting. You don't want to get on their bad side, because you still need to buy other bits from them.