Breaking News - Hanwha Vision will now only sell via security installers!

[Phil]

Hanwha Vision have dropped a bomb shell on us last week!

You will no longer be allowed to buy the Hanwha Vision product range from us, nor from any other online reseller, nor even across a Trade counter from a reseller.

From now on, nobody will be allowed to resell Hanwha Vision products, the only way to access their product range in the future will be via a security installer!!


I spent 30 minutes discussing this with their UK Sales Director on Thursday afternoon, and wrote to him Friday morning seeking further clarification (no response yet).

I suspect that this sales ban that Hanwha Vision are implementing falls foul of UK/EU/CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) anti-competitive legislation, as per this well known case against the golf club manufacturer Ping who sought to restrict how their products could be sold to UK/EU consumers:
CMA fines Ping £1.45m for online sales ban on golf clubs

I am considering reporting Hanwha Vision Europe Ltd for the action that they have taken, as per Note 6 at the CMA web page linked above.

NB - Ping twice appealed the CMA action and fine, and lost twice:
Court of Appeal upholds CMA decision on online sales

Ann Pope, Senior Director for Antitrust Enforcement, said:​

Twice now Ping Europe has appealed – and twice we’ve had our findings upheld that it broke the law by trying to stop online retailers from selling its golf clubs.
This sends a clear and important message: companies that try to stop people from shopping online for their products could be breaking the law.
We are determined that people should be able to shop around and enjoy the benefits of competition from online shops as well as in-stores.

We had no prior notice of this plan.
It has been very poorly communicated and implemented.
We, and all other resellers, were stopped from placing any further orders last week.
Hanwha Vision's distributors were informed that they could no longer sell to anybody except security installers, and that POS reports would now be checked to ensure that they complied with these new rules. They were left in a very difficult position of explaining to customers like us, who had purchased Hanwha Vision products for many years, that they were no longer allowed to ...

We have sold & supported Samsung/Techwin/Wisenet/Hanwha/Hanwha Vision for about ten years.
We have throughout that period enjoyed support from them, and visits from their Reps to our offices.


Unfortunately, this means that we will not be able to procure any further Hanwha Vision products for our customers.
We may be able to 'grab' product until this month-end (4 days remaining), but that is not at all a suitable relationship for us to build from and support our customers.

We have at least four current open projects with customers who had selected Hanwha Vision for their solution.
I will now write to each to advise them that, as above, we are now unable to fulfil their requirements.

I anticipate that each will now select an alternative brand of IP camera ...

Due to the sudden and challenging aspects of this change, I have provided this overview as a point of referral for our team and any interested / concerned customers - e.g.

• We have online product pages for 299 Hanwha Vision products!
• Ongoing/incoming enquiries for Hanwha Vision products.
• Existing customers & projects where we expected to supply Hanwha Vision products

 

[Phil]

I have, this morning, raised this issue with the UK Government Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

I have created a case, and provided all of the required supporting information.

I have asked the CMA to assess Hanwha Europe Vision Ltd's anti-competitive and restrictive actions, which are intended to prevent UK consumers, SMEs, education sector establishments etc. from being able to continue to purchase and self-install their products (as they always have done), nor even to be able to check pricing.