GDA : Partners unite against parallel importers

Parallel imports are a menace for customers and channel partners who deal in authorized goods. The DQ Week has been upbeat about combating this menace for the partner community. In recent events with regards to problems faced by partners due to parallel imports, and in order to safeguard the interests of vendor authorized channel partners, a new association called Genuine Dealers Association (GDA) is being formed by partners in Mumbai.

Many authorized channel partners which includes sub-distributors, regional distributors, resellers, and dealers of vendors like Dell, HP, etc, have faced the challenges due to parallel imports and counterfeit products. Elaborating upon these issues, Vijay Goel, director, Miracle Tech Distributors said, "Repacked and refurbished units are sold in this market at lower rates and the customers are duped as they are not the products as expected by the consumers. Following this, there are warranty issues on such products. Such incidents have created lot of problems for genuine dealers and distributors. So to protect the partners we have decided to form this new association."

The plan is to launch this association by the first week of June. Goel, who is a major distributor for Dell, has approached all Dell partners across Mumbai and outskirts including Thane and Navi Mumbai. The list includes distributors and regional distributors too. Apart from this, HP channel partners have also been approached for this cause. Goel said, "We have received positive response from all Dell partners. We are hopeful and expect a positive response from the channel partners of other vendors like HP."

Currently, there are already 25 partners on board and the expectation is to have 100 more partners by the time the association is launched. Goel said, "We will be aligning with TAIT and in the near future we intend to have a meeting with TAIT to formalize the matters at large."

According to Goel, there are at least 5-10% parallel imports related to products coming into the market, and due to the nature of the products the brand name is compromised. Goel said, "The vendors and partners have invested time, money, and resources to build a brand name over the years and such instances directly impact the brand name of the product, which also impacts our business' bottomline."