Base.com

[Si Parallel Universe]

Originally Posted by jimidini

Yes I know.

If I remember correctly, EU was planning to do a tax upfront for all orders outside of EU, with no customs free limit, for all online orders (massive rip off similar to Australia).

I wonder if UK will implement something like that on their own, or not. I hope not.

The prospect of no deal throws any equation into complete chaos.

[jimidini]

Originally Posted by Si Parallel Universe

The prospect of no deal throws any equation into complete chaos.

Well in my opinion the EU will go up in flames next year and the whole construct itself may disappear...
The sooner everyone leaves, the better.

[Kyle15]

The bit about suppliers requiring their items be shipped and sold within the EEA is a dead giveaway it's license stipulations. Rubenstein wants his markets locked.

[TwinCitiesBluFan]

Ahh, what a bummer this is. I haven't used them myself, but was just thinking I should start so I don't have to worry about having a UK friend to have Amazon UK orders shipped to.

[bigrob]

Originally Posted by Kyle15

The bit about suppliers requiring their items be shipped and sold within the EEA is a dead giveaway it's license stipulations. Rubenstein wants his markets locked.

So has anyone else had orders cancelled that wasn't Dawn of the Dead?

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by bigrob

So has anyone else had orders cancelled that wasn't Dawn of the Dead?

They're cancelling all outstanding international orders regardless of the item. Don't know for certain but it seems Dawn might be the catalyst for it.

[Rayjg]

Definitely Dawn’s fault. They made it for all future orders just to cover themselves. I think they expected huge losses on shipping these internationally.

[UnionJackMix]

Originally Posted by jimidini

Yes I know.

If I remember correctly, EU was planning to do a tax upfront for all orders outside of EU, with no customs free limit, for all online orders (massive rip off similar to what they did in Australia).

I wonder if UK will implement something like that on their own, or not. I hope not.

Well all European amazons are already doing this, for a couple of months alread: no matter the amount, amazon will remove the particular amazon's country taxes and add my country's.
I'm not sure of the specific reason or trigger.

[malcy30]

Originally Posted by UnionJackMix

Well all European amazons are already doing this, for a couple of months alread: no matter the amount, amazon will remove the particular amazon's country taxes and add my country's.
I'm not sure of the specific reason or trigger.

This has applied for a number of years. Within the EU a retailer must charge the VAT rate of the purchaser's home country and not the seller's country rate.

You see this in Germany where the German Government because of Covid has reduced the VAT rate on discs from 19% to 15% up to year end. It means that because the headline prices haven't been reduced. Amazon.de and the seller are pocketing the VAT saving the price paid if you live outside Germany has gone up.

[jkoffman]

Originally Posted by bigrob

So has anyone else had orders cancelled that wasn't Dawn of the Dead?

I didn't order Dawn from Base, but I also got the notice because I had just ordered 6 BRs this week from them for the first time.

[JayTL]

Originally Posted by Kyle15

The bit about suppliers requiring their items be shipped and sold within the EEA is a dead giveaway it's license stipulations. Rubenstein wants his markets locked.

But is it weird that a licence can stipulate that one shop can only ship to certain locations?

Something smells fishy here.

[jkoffman]

Originally Posted by JayTL

But is it weird that a licence can stipulate that one shop can only ship to certain locations?

Something smells fishy here.

I don't get it either, considering Amazon, the 1st or 2nd largest retailer in the world, isn't subject to the same -- or at the same level of -- scrutiny.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by JayTL

But is it weird that a licence can stipulate that one shop can only ship to certain locations?

No, it's an absolutely standard condition of all licenses that you can't ship outside the territory and you have the option to seek legal remedy (the local distributor supposedly being responsible for enforcement against selling to outlets that break the territorial limitations): indie films in particular are often funded by being licensed territory by territory and they don't want to lose the chance to licence to one territory by customers from that one territory importing from another (hence things like region locking or only one language option). Why would a French distributor pay for a French license if they're going to import a French subtitled version from Germany or Italy, for example.

In practice there's a blind eye turned to what's regarded as parallel importing because the majority of the customer base is too lazy to import and will buy locally instead, so the assumption is that it's not huge numbers, especially if it's back-catalogue stuff. In this case, if it is a DoD issue, I'm assuming the license holder doesn't own a large catalogue so it's not going to be regarded as 'natural wastage'/'the price of doing ongoing business' and is cutting into potential foreign licensing deals. On the rare occasions it is enforced, it's impossible to go after Amazon - they'll simply stop stocking your titles altogether or dare you to sue them, and because they control such a huge percentage of the market you have to take it even if you're a major. It's always been the way: the biggest fish in the pond sets the price they pay and the terms they trade on. When Woolworths was the UK's largest home video seller and distributor they were just as arrogant.

Smaller outlets don't have that advantage when the license owner goes after the local license holder who in turn goes after them for breaking the terms of supply. It's a shit rolls downhill situation.

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by JayTL

But is it weird that a licence can stipulate that one shop can only ship to certain locations?

Something smells fishy here.

It absolutely can stipulate such, yea.

Originally Posted by jkoffman

I don't get it either, considering Amazon, the 1st or 2nd largest retailer in the world, isn't subject to the same -- or at the same level of -- scrutiny.

Amazon is not allowing orders for the 4k to US customers, so they are. It remains to be seen how many retailers will get hit with the desist stick.

[scififan73]

Originally Posted by lemonski

Perhaps the pressure has come from the video game side of things, I can’t see many Blu-ray/DVD companies caring where their orders come from and who they go to.

Really, it’s a decision that’s dumb beyond belief. In a weaker global economy, online sales will become more prevalent and discretionary spending will be even harder to attract from people with uncertain job security. Abandoning an entire stream of income is not very bright. I wouldn’t be surprised if they eventually went down the gurgler.

And to be perfectly honest, good riddance to them. Selling online is a game that you're either all-in or all-out. If a company wants to change their policies after consultation with the media suppliers that's their prerogative. But to retroactively cancel existing pre-orders on file for months so soon to actual release reveals base.com as a company that deserves to go bankrupt.
I replied to their obnoxious e-mail with a blasting of their policies and actions.
Will it change anything ? No, but it lets them know of the loss of overseas business they will have earned going forward.

[pixote]

Originally Posted by Rayjg

Definitely Dawn’s fault. They made it for all future orders just to cover themselves. I think they expected huge losses on shipping these internationally.

I wonder if this won’t cause an oversupply. If all these orders are cancelled but the manufacturing took them into account, there’s going to be a bunch of unsold copies sitting on base

[profondomondo]

Originally Posted by jimidini

Yes I know.

If I remember correctly, EU was planning to do a tax upfront for all orders outside of EU, with no customs free limit, for all online orders (massive rip off similar to what they did in Australia).

I wonder if UK will implement something like that on their own, or not. I hope not.

I've not seen anything to suggest the EU's plans have changed,i think that plan was due to start from 1st Jan,or presumably customs will still manually apply the VAT plus any administration fee's the relevant local postal provider charges if it's not paid in advance.

When there was a possibilty we would leave on 31st October last year without a deal,guidance information provided at that time stated that should no deal happen,the customs free limit would end with immediate effect and all imports regardless of origin would have VAT applied at the relevant rates.

It remains to be seen if anything changes with regards to import VAT on goods coming in from the EU during these current negotiations,but i assume the plan mentioned above for Non-EU imports will now happen from 1st Jan instead.

I believe the plan is broadly the same as in the EU,whereby the VAT will either need to be paid in advance by the sender via a tax website,or manually applied at the border(presumably plus the carriers administration fee)

[jkoffman]

Originally Posted by Kyle15

Amazon is not allowing orders for the 4k to US customers, so they are. It remains to be seen how many retailers will get hit with the desist stick.

I understand there could be a case-by-case issue, like with this 4K release, but we started this convo based on Base referring to licensing issues with ALL releases shipped to outside of EEA, not just this one release. I received the notice from Base and I hadn't even ordered Dawn from them.

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by jkoffman

I understand there could be a case-by-case issue, like with this 4K release, but we started this convo based on Base referring to licensing issues with ALL releases shipped to outside of EEA, not just this one release. I received the notice from Base and I hadn't even ordered Dawn from them.

I think it's simple in that they're attempting to cover themselves so it doesn't raise eyebrows about preferential treatment. They don't want to get into hot water so they're canning the whole international deal.

[koberulz]

Yeah, they're costing themselves thousands of dollars of business so as to avoid a minor inconvenience.

I highly doubt this is just a DotD thing.