USA is a free market. Everyone is authorized all the time to sell every safe product. The terms "gray market" and "authorized reseller" are linguistic manipulations which benefit manufacturers at the expense of everyone else in society.
I think Daye broke US law when they destroyed law-fully purchased products inside USA. I hope the inverter owners bring a class-action lawsuit against Daye in the US. The court could block the sale of the company's products in USA until they restore the inverters and pay restitution.
That’s laughably wrong. Exclusive distribution rights are probably enforced more strictly in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world. They are governed by contract law. In addition, many product categories need to be demonstrated as safe to the right licensing agencies before being sold, not after.
> That’s laughably wrong. Exclusive distribution rights are probably enforced more strictly in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world. They are governed by contract law.
But that’s an issue between the manufacturer and the distributors which can then sue each other for breach of contract, right? The “authorized reseller” thing shouldn’t matter to the end consumer, as soon as I have the product, it’s as legitimate as every other purchase.
I agree that it should be worked out between the manufacturer and distributor. But the idea that "it’s as legitimate as every other purchase" is flawed.
Let's say a guy in China buys the product from Deye, who stipulates under Chinese law that this is only for use in China and not authorized for export. The guy sells it on to you in the US anyway (so let's call him a "scammer" for violating law and misrepresenting the product to you, and innocent consumer looking for a good deal).
Why should Deye respect your rights at all and not brick the device? What rights should you have under Chinese law? If they don't brick the device, how can they disincentivize the scammers at scale? Sure you can say they should prosecute and rely on the deterrent aspect of the penal system, but that is not really going to be effective.
Basically it boils down to what rights the victims of scammers and criminals have. If you unknowingly bought stolen diamonds, what rights do you have when the original owner comes knocking?
The analogy to theft is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Let's say it was a textbook that also had a label saying it was only to be sold in India. Would the US publisher have a right to steal such a book from someone in the U.S. that had it?
That first sale has to be legal for the subsequent resales to be legal. Plus we’re not talking about (domestic) resales here, the topic at hand is questionable imports of products never intended for sale in the U.S. off Aliexpress.
> U.S. Supreme Court Holds that Books Printed and Sold Abroad May Be Freely Resold in the U.S. Because the Copyrights Are Exhausted Under the First-Sale Doctrine
Now do sale of region-free DVD players in the U.S.
In any case, it’s perfectly legal for me to make and sell a geo-locked device in another country, and it is the importer’s problem if fails to work elsewhere. That doesn’t tend to happen with physical books, obviously.
Post-sale disabling of inverter devices is different than lack of support. The Supreme Court case on textbooks arose from profits on textbook arbitrage. New device-related caselaw will depend on a plaintiff that makes enough from device arbitrage to fund a lawsuit.
I think Daye broke US law when they destroyed law-fully purchased products inside USA. I hope the inverter owners bring a class-action lawsuit against Daye in the US. The court could block the sale of the company's products in USA until they restore the inverters and pay restitution.