[trentnix]

The playing field is still unlevel - those overseas retailers don't pay sales tax and are still getting the products cheaper than they are made available to US retailers. The US government even subsidizes some overseas shipping, making it more affordable for overseas retailers to reach a US audience!

[phaker]

MAP agreements are illegal in EU. They were specifically banned, and for good reason. Which is why calling Shimano's stance a "refusal" to deal with some problem gets you a negative response.

Still, feel you on the retail apocalypse, and how every other new internet darling can somehow skirt taxes or... and the problem is unfixable until right after it doesn't matter anymore. It took something like twenty years for Amazon to start paying US sales taxes most of the time, in many cities Uber's business model was price dumping etc.

[trentnix]

Apple and Garmin manage to successfully enforce MAP. Nintendo, Sega, and Sony before them. Parallel Import Law is the means they use to do so.

Shimano could, were they willing, use Parallel Import laws to prevent European retailers from selling those products in the American market. They've chosen not to. So whether one likes hearing it called a "refusal" or not, I think that's what it is.

[prepend]

> cheaper than they are made available to US retailers

Seems like addressing this problem is important. Why is wholesale cheaper in Europe than the US?