1. Channel IQ | Know What You Don’t Know Series:
Put-Up or Shut-Up:
Successfully Enforcing Resale Price and
MAP Policies with Amazon and Others
Gene Zelek
David Howell
1
Channel IQ
350 W Ontario St, 6th & 7th Floors
Chicago, IL 60654
312.846.1199
www.channeliq.com

2. Introductions
Today’s Guest Speakers
Gene Zelek
2
David Howell

3. Put-Up or Shut-Up:
Successfully Enforcing Resale Price and MAP
Policies with Amazon and Others
Eugene F. Zelek, Jr.
Freeborn & Peters LLP
February 19, 2014

4. Reducing the Likelihood of Violation:
Careful Design
4

5. Philosophy
 Strong, Clear Policy with Sting
 Chilling Effect
 Commitment
5

6. Don’t do Anything if You are not Prepared to Enforce it with Your
Biggest or Best Reseller
6

7. Sometimes You Have to Take a Bullet
7

8. Good Design:
Plan For Change
 Temporary Modifications
 Product or Price Revisions
 Amended and Restated Policy
8

9. Poor Design:
Policy Timidity
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
9
Vagueness
May vs. Will
Lack of Sting
More than Three Strikes
Restarting the Clock
Bad Behaviors Allowed
Ineffective Monitoring

10. Poor Design:
Lack of Infrastructure
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
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
10
No Internal Champion
No Policy Administrator
Sales Force as Police
No Ancillary Support

11. Poor Design:
Myopia
 Forgetting Other Means
 Overlooking Business and Legal Conflicts
and Friction
 Neglecting Distribution Realities
11

12. Neglecting Distribution Realities
 Uncontrolled Distribution
 Powerful Resellers
 Multi-Step Implications
12

13. Multi-Step Implications
 Ignoring Integrated Resellers
 Inability to Track Products
 Invisibility of the Indirects
13

14. Presenting:
The Reseller of the Year
14

15. Enforcement
15

16. Flexibility:
Internal Enforcement Guidelines
 Reseller Mistakes
 Simultaneous Violations
16

17. Pulling the Trigger:
Violation Letters
 Short and to the
Point
 No Wiggle Room
17

18. Parade of Excuses
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•
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•
18
Never Saw the Policy
Just a Mistake
Not Responsible for What Happens
Policy is Illegal in Canada or the U.S.
MAP Policy Cannot Lawfully Cover In-the-Cart Prices
Make the Others Take Up Their Prices First
But You Told Me [Fill in the Blank]

19. Summary, Questions
and Comments
Eugene F. Zelek, Jr.
Freeborn & Peters LLP
312.360.6777
ezelek@freeborn.com
© 2014 All Rights Reserved.
3044399/2
February 19, 2014

20. Thank You For Attending
Gene Zelek
David Howell
20
ezelek@freeborn.com
dhowell@channeliq.com
Channel IQ
350 W Ontario St, 6th & 7th Floors
Chicago, IL 60654
312.846.1199
www.channeliq.com