Unauthorized sellers on marketplaces: what a brand can do
An unauthorized seller sells a brand's products outside the distribution network chosen by the brand. In France, price is not a lever: imposing a minimum resale price is prohibited.
The legal measures focus on the distribution channel: selective distribution and off-channel resale, trademark law to combat the gray market and counterfeiting, and obligations for marketplaces under the DSA. All of these require knowing exactly who is selling what, where, and at what price.
A product sold 15% below the suggested retail price on a marketplace by a store that nobody has heard of. The typical American response would be to invoke a minimum price. In France, that’s the wrong approach.
This article is intended for brands and authorized retailers whose products are being sold at bargain prices online.
He explains what an unauthorized seller is under French law, what legal remedies are available against them, and why it all starts with reliable data.
Unauthorized sellers: What is this all about in France?
An unauthorized seller offers a brand's products without being part of the brand's authorized distribution network. The seller may be selling genuine products purchased elsewhere or counterfeit products.
In the United States, this issue is almost always addressed through pricing. The brand sets a minimum advertised price, monitors who is selling below it, and then imposes penalties.
In France, this line of reasoning doesn't hold up. The low price offered by an unknown seller is a symptom, not the offense itself. What matters is where the product comes from and through which channel it is sold.
Three situations that have nothing to do with each other
An off-network retailer sells genuine products that have been diverted from a selective or exclusive distribution network. The gray market involves authentic products imported from outside the European Economic Area without the brand's consent.
Finally, counterfeiting is not a result of the brand. Each situation calls for a different approach, and none of them involves price.
Why Minimum Price Regulations Are Prohibited in France
Imposing a minimum resale price on distributors is prohibited by the Commercial Code (Article L442-6) and by competition law. A brand may recommend a price, but may never impose it.
A fine for imposing resale price maintenance, imposed by the Competition Authority on Schneider Electric, Legrand, Rexel, and Sonepar in the low-voltage electrical equipment sector.
(Competition Authority, decision of October 29, 2024)
An American-style minimum pricing policy—with penalties for retailers who sell below that price—therefore puts the brand at risk. Monitoring it with a tool doesn't change anything.
The distinction between the suggested retail price and the fixed price is explained in detail in our article on the SRP and retailers' pricing freedom.
Where do unauthorized sellers appear?
Marketplaces account for the bulk of this trend: Amazon, Cdiscount, ManoMano, and the marketplaces operated by Fnac Darty and Rakuten. It takes just a few hours to open a store on one of these platforms.
According to Fevad, marketplaces will account for 32% of the product sales volume in the French e-commerce sector by 2025. A brand that is not present on this channel often finds itself there despite itself.
On a shared product listing, the seller with the lowest price often wins the spot at the top of the list. This mechanism is described in “How Marketplaces Are Revolutionizing Price Monitoring.”
The sectors most at risk sell standardized products that are expensive per unit: home appliances, high-tech, beauty, baby care, and home improvement.
counterfeit goods seized by French customs in 2025, including more than 2.8 million in express and postal shipments.
(French Customs, 2025 Results, press release dated February 19, 2026)
Counterfeit goods are increasingly being shipped in small packages sent directly to consumers. They are harder to intercept at the border and are therefore more visible on online marketplaces.
What a brand Can Legally Do
Since price is not a lever, the brand focuses on three areas: its network, its trademark rights, and the obligations of platforms.
A closed selective distribution network
A brand can select its distributors based on quality criteria and prohibit them from reselling to unauthorized resellers. It can also prohibit them from selling on third-party marketplaces, without banning online sales.
The Commercial Code (Article L442-2) holds any professional who participates in a violation of this prohibition on off-network resale liable. Sales by private individuals are not covered.
This approach requires a legitimate and watertight distribution network. If products are leaking through an authorized distributor, that is the link that must be identified first.
Trademark Rights in the Face of the Gray Market and Counterfeiting
A product placed on the market in the European Economic Area with the brand owner's consent may be resold freely. This is the principle of exhaustion of rights.
On the other hand, a product imported from outside this area without its consent may be challenged under trademark law as an infringement.
The Obligations of Marketplaces
Effective February 17, 2024, the European Digital Services Act (DSA) requires marketplaces to verify the identity of their professional sellers and to display their contact information (Article 30).
They must also address reports of illegal content, including counterfeit goods. An operator that opens multiple stores becomes easier to identify.
| Location | Foundation | Main lever |
|---|---|---|
| Non-affiliated retailer | Selective Distribution Agreement, Article L442-2 of the Commercial Code | Action Against the Reseller and Investigation of the Leak in the Network |
| Grey market (outside the European Economic Area) | Trademark Law | Trademark Infringement Lawsuit |
| Counterfeiting | Trademark Law, Notification Required Under the DSA | Withdrawal of bids, legal action, customs |
| Seller is selling below the suggested retail price | Reseller Pricing Freedom | None |
From the retailer's perspective: a matter of price perception
This issue isn't limited to brands. An authorized retailer sees the same products being sold at lower prices by a marketplace seller who doesn't have the same consulting costs or service commitments.
To the customer, the brand seems expensive for a product that it actually sells at market price. A knee-jerk price adjustment erodes profit margins without solving anything.
Before taking action, you need to know who you’re dealing with: a legitimate competitor, an unauthorized reseller, or a counterfeit product. The best way to respond without damaging your position is discussed in “Monitoring Your Competitors Without Harming Your Price Image.”
A price discrepancy is not a problem in and of itself, as we explain in “Price Discrepancies Across Channels: Consistency, Not Uniformity.” It becomes a problem when no one can explain it.
The first step: knowing who sells what, and at what price
None of these strategies work without evidence. You need to be able to show which seller offers which product, on which platform, at what price, and since when.
An unknown seller isn't necessarily unauthorized. They may be an authorized distributor operating under a different store name, and treating them as a violator damages a legitimate business relationship.
It all hinges on two key elements: regularly collecting online listings, and a product-matching system that links each listing to the correct product ID, even when the title or photo differs.
These are the two cornerstones of our price tracking and web scraping efforts. The quality of the mapping table is the key factor, as shown in our article on how to improve the reliability of product matching.
Monitoring is intended to document, never to enforce a price. The distinction is subtle in words, but clear in law. The general framework is set out in our price monitoring system and our price compliance guide.
Would you like to know who is selling your products online?
Our experts will show you how to collect marketplace offers and match them to your own product listings.
Let's discuss your sales channelsFAQ: Unauthorized Sellers
An unauthorized seller offers a brand's products without being part of the brand's chosen distribution network. This could be a reseller who sources products from outside the network, a gray-market importer, or a seller of counterfeit goods.
In France, selling a product for less than the suggested retail price is not enough to classify a seller as unauthorized. What matters is the product's origin and the channel through which it is sold.
No. Imposing a minimum resale price is prohibited by the Commercial Code and by competition law. A brand may publish a suggested retail price, but the retailer remains free to sell at a higher or lower price.
The minimum pricing policies in effect in the United States—which include penalties for retailers who sell below those prices—cannot therefore be applied here. The Competition Authority imposed fines totaling 470 million euros for this type of practice in 2024.
In a lawful selective distribution network, a brand may prohibit its authorized distributors from selling through third-party marketplaces. It may not, however, prohibit them from selling online altogether.
This ban applies to distributors within the network. It does not apply directly to external sellers, who will be subject to other measures: off-network resale, trademark law, or reporting to the platform.
Yes. Article L442-2 of the Commercial Code holds liable any business that participates in a violation of the prohibition on off-network resale imposed on distributors within a selective or exclusive distribution network.
However, the distribution network must be legitimate and truly secure. Sales by private individuals are not covered by this legislation. The practical challenge is often to identify which authorized distributor is allowing products to leave the network.
It depends on the product's origin. A genuine product placed on the market in the European Economic Area with the brand's consent may be resold freely: this is known as the exhaustion of trademark rights.
On the other hand, a genuine product imported from outside this area without the brand's consent may be challenged under trademark law. In such cases, the traceability of shipments is crucial for proving the product's origin.
Effective February 17, 2024, the European Digital Services Act requires marketplaces to collect and verify the identities of their professional sellers and to display their contact information on product listings.
Platforms must also address reports of illegal content, including counterfeit goods. For a brand, it is becoming easier to identify the operator behind multiple stores and submit a request to them.
No. An authorized distributor may operate on a marketplace under a store name that differs from its legal business name. Treating the distributor as a violator risks damaging a legitimate business relationship.
Before taking any action, you should verify that the seller’s identity—as displayed on the platform via the DSA—matches the list of authorized distributors. A low price or a newly opened store are red flags, but never proof.
It is necessary to regularly collect online listings from the websites and marketplaces where the brand is sold, and to use reliable product matching that links each listing to the correct product code.
This data makes it possible to document which seller offers which product, on which platform, at what price, and since when. It serves as the basis for legal proceedings, but is never used to impose a price.
Pricing in the foodservice industry is structured in three tiers: foodservice distributors set net prices on a customer-by-customer basis; institutional foodservice adjusts its prices according to a contract clause; and commercial foodservice sets menu prices subject to constraints related to ingredient costs and local competition.
Each level has its own timing mechanism, and the one that passes on price changes most slowly absorbs the difference. For a distributor, profit margins are lost primarily in the time lag between a price increase and its implementation, and in discounts granted once and never adjusted.
Managing toy pricing involves setting a price for each product that is appropriate for the time of year, the product’s lifecycle, and what customers are comparing it to. Specialists generate 64% of their sales from January through October: it’s outside of the Christmas season that profit margins are determined, when prices aren’t simply imposed.
A new brand stands out early on, a classic holds its ground, and a birthday gift is chosen based more on price range than on a discount. Baby products are priced like equipment, based on trust and product line consistency, and post-holiday unsold inventory—which cannot be destroyed—is sorted by individual item.
The price of home appliances is determined more by the purchasing situation than by the specific appliance itself. Replacing an appliance after it breaks down is urgent, and while comparisons are typically made among a few benchmark models, built-in appliances are evaluated based on the total cost estimate, and small appliances are chosen based on budget ranges, often as gifts.
Aligning the entire product line with the lowest-priced clearance items means focusing on sales where customers compare prices the least. The annual renewal of product lines disrupts price comparisons and sales history, but this is corrected through product matching and cross-selling, and the actual margin is reflected in total sales, including services.