CousinsUK Watch Parts restriction Court Case gets a helping
hand from USA
Latest News from Watch Parts Etc, CousinsUK has posted on their web site the latest news relating to their court case.
It seems that US Federal Trade Commission may also be taking up the case of watch manufactures restricted practice on parts supply to independent repairers like me..
You can read the full news at: https://www.cousinsuk.com/page/news
From CusinsUK web site:
News Update: 07/8/19 - The Sleeping Giant Awakes
Back in March of this year, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is the American counterpart to our Competition and Markets Authority, announced that it would be holding a conference in July under the title “Nixing the Fix” (https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/events-calendar/nixing-fix-workshop-repair-restrictions).
The event was part of an investigation by the FTC into how some manufacturers are using clauses in product guarantees to prevent consumers from getting their items repaired anywhere other than at the manufacturer, but it quickly became apparent to the FTC that controlling parts supply was an equally dubious practice that was likely to harm consumers. The FTC obviously only deals with the American market, and the laws over there are somewhat different to ours, but if the USA were to rule that parts restrictions were illegal, the knock-on effect for the rest of the repairing world would be significant.
Within three days of the event being announced, Cousins had contacted the relevant individuals at the FTC and supplied them with a summary of events in Europe to date in relation to watch parts restrictions. The Conference was streamed live over the internet and was also recorded. The link above will lead you to the archived video if you would like to review any of it. The FTC is now asking for “empirical evidence” on how restrictions are affecting consumers and markets. Full details on how to submit a contribution are on this link: -
If you would like to contribute something but are not able to meet the presentation requirements of the FTC, you may like to know that the person leading the charge in the USA for the watch repairers is Andre Fleury, who took on Cartier some years ago and has been fighting on ever since. He has put together a web site www.andre-fleury.com where he has gathered together evidence on many brands. He would be very grateful for any contributions to add to his collection. His contact details are on his website.
Cousins will be providing more data about the UK market to the FTC shortly, but we are only one voice. If the FTC receives many more inputs from around the world, it may well recognise the kudos that comes with being the first regulator in the world that actually forces the large corporations to play fair with independent repairers, who create a competitive market that provides a valuable service to consumers, and prevents them from being abused
