Privateer Press: Drops the Hammer on Online Retailers
Privateer has joined the ranks of Asmodee and GW with a new policy meant to protect brick & mortars: Here’s the details:
Privateer President Sherry Yeary sent a letter to retailers explaining the new policy:
“Over the last eleven years… online retailers with nearly no overhead and very little meaningful contact with our audience have been undermining the stability of the market by selling product at discounts well below retail value, depending solely on the efforts of our brick and mortar partners who offer services that nurture our audience and grow the market to move their product,”
“This model of business is widely recognized by experts and the justice system as ‘free riding.’ While this can be a viable business model for many mainstream products, it is common knowledge that in our industry it’s crippling and anticompetitive.”
Privateer’s plan sounds very similar to Asmodee’s. They will define
“retailers …offering Privateer Press products at an unsustainable deep discount and offer[ing] very little or nothing in the way of services” …
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as free riders and and will penalize distributors who sell to them, with delayed product shipments. The list will be updated by adding or deleting retailers as needed.
The new policy goes into effect April 4th.
Yearly goes onto to explain:
“We do not condone the free riders’ parasitic business model and elect to both continue and enhance our partnerships with those distributors that share our point of view and actively work in the best interests of the brick-and-mortar retailers.” While we cannot and would not dictate to our distributor partners who they can or cannot sell to, we believe free riders are eroding the foundation of our industry and hurting our business; only with the cooperation of our distribution partners can we prevent that.”
“(w)e also recognize that online retailers provide access to the product to some customers who do not have ready access to a local brick-and-mortar store. We hope those online retailers with integrity and the foresight to protect the longevity and availability of the product lines providing their income will swiftly adjust any retailing practices that are counterproductive to the health of our industry.”
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Privateer Press’s letter did not define either what an acceptable maximum discount was, nor how hybrid stores who ofer both brick and mortar retail space as well as online sales would be handled.
This new policy puts Privateer Press on the same wide of the fence with Games Workshop, Asmodee, Mayfair, and Wizkids who all have policies in place to limit the availability of thier products via online sales – in the service of protecting physical brick and mortar retailers.
You may remember Asmodee’s announcement of their own program here:
~Have at it.
