HP Discourages Unauthorized Online Selling of Its Products

According to CRN, HP India has issued an advisory cum notice to the IT channel making partner authorization mandatory for selling online on sites like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon. It has also warned of stringent action against authorized partners found flouting the norms of selling through marketplaces.

In the notice, HP says, “Only channel partners who have a valid partner contract with HP are authorized to sell HP products. In case partners wish to sell HP products online, they need to take prior approval from HP, specifically informing about all the details pertaining to sales plans and proposed online business. Any deviation from this guideline could attract strong action from HP including losing program benefits or any other financial or marketing entitlements from HP.”

CRN suggests HP is also in the process of putting in place a channel consequence management framework to discourage and deal with disruptive behavior of unauthorized channel partners who sell through online marketplaces. Also, special end-customer promotion offers will no longer be valid for customer purchases from unauthorized online marketplaces.

Explaining the reason behind, HP says there is a “growing trend where unauthorized online/e-commerce sites deal in HP products at prices intended to disrupt market and to veer away customers. We see these disruptive practices as an industry wide issue impacting both the brand owners and the channel community and ought to be dealt appropriately in order to safeguard the interests of customers and partners. A joint effort between partners and OEM’s is crucial to curb the practices of online sites which attempt to debilitate the channel.”

HP said that it is closely following the practices of online retailers to see if any of their actions infringe upon the Intellectual Property rights of HP. “We are making attempts to engage online marketplaces to impress upon them the advantages of working with HP authorized partners and acting within the fold of HP recognized business model,” the advisory stated.