5 ms·

Just to add: the EU mandates certain standards that other territories do not necessarily impose. For example: turn signals on cars: in the EU, they must be sepa

by Beldin 3y ago

Just to add: the EU mandates certain standards that other territories do not necessarily impose. For example: turn signals on cars: in the EU, they must be separate from brake lights and colored yellow or orange. That is: (1) vendors may abide by different standards elsewhere, and (2) implementation of those different standards may cause incompatibility (eg. US rear lights may not be compatible with EU models). While that might not completely justify such rules in all cases, they're not always fully anti-consumer either.

NoRelToEmber 3y ago
But if a product does not comply with EU standards, it is illegal to sell/import/use it in the EU regardless of if the trademark owner allows its sale - it's not up to them. So yes, deputizing trademark owners to police imports, on the off chance that maybe sometimes their decisions will align with other consumer-protection laws, is always fully anti-consumer.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
hef19898 3y ago
There is a whole industry around the import of US cars that are not directly sold in the EU. You can even register them with the US rear lights, in Germany. The absence of an EU CoC makes this a tack costly and lengthy, but it is absolutely possible. Coming back to the video, I think it is more an issue around Nikon US, eBay US and the seller. I don't think Nikon, or any other Japanese camera brand, are blocking international resale of used gear on eBay in general, there are way to many private and commercial sellers in Japan shipping through eBay to the US and the EU for thatbto be true. Also, with all the account blocking stories and copy right take downs being discussed on HN basically every day, why do we all assume it is Nikon's "fault"? I mean eBay is a party in this, too.
- lloeki 3y ago
  > There is a whole industry around the import of US cars that are not directly sold in the EU Same in France. The requirement when buying a foreign car is that it must get vetted by the DRIRE (ex Mines), which might be easy (e.g a EU car typically already has a registered entry because vehicles are extremely similar to identical) or hard (e.g US cars being subject to different regulations), but if one vehicle of a specific type went through the process it now has an entry as well and it's a matter of checking that the ingress vehicle matches the previous entry, fast tracking the process. IIRC there are provisions for historical cars (véhicules de collection, i.e > 30yo) that are allowed to not be compliant with current regulations as long as they're stock (except for some bits, e.g IIRC tyres must be upgraded to radial tyres to be road-worthy). Still lengthy and costly. (caveat: it's been a long time since I got interested in the process, things may have changed)
  - lttlrck 3y ago
    By comparison, I imported a 32 year old car into the UK from Germany and it wasn't even inspected... I applied for plates and they turned up in the mail. After that I did the MOT (road worthiness inspection).
ajsnigrutin 3y ago
You can still import a car with wrong tail lights, half a car, just the tail lights or a car without the tail lights. You just can't register such a car in europe to be used as a "local car" (have plates of the current country) and driven on public streets. You can also drive into europe with such a car (as long as it's legal in it's main country, and there is a treaty made by EU-that_country). While US cars are a rare thing to see here, there are a bunch of british right-hand drive cars all around europe driven by british drivers, that have bliding headlights for everyone else (becase the shape of the beam is different), and EU has no issues with that. You can even buy one in EU... but to register it under eg. german plates, you'll have to modify (well, replace) the headlights (not sure about the wheel).
- camtarn 3y ago
  > there are a bunch of british right-hand drive cars all around europe driven by british drivers, that have bliding headlights for everyone else (becase the shape of the beam is different), and EU has no issues with that. I'm not sure whether the EU has a law about this, but most mainland EU countries mandate that UK cars crossing over to the EU mainland must fit headlight beam deflectors to prevent this issue. British drivers with cars that blind people are probably ignoring this law.
  - jen20 3y ago
    Many cars have a switch on the lights to redirect the beam for exactly this reason.
- mcv 3y ago
  Wait, is it legal to drive a car that does not meet safety regulations as long as the car is registered in another country? That sounds like a really bad idea. What if a country allows you to drive any sort of thoroughly unsafe Mad Max vehicle without seatbelts or airbags, and an excess of unsafe spikes everywhere? There's got to be a point where that kind of car can't be legally driven in other countries, right? I would expect that, to drive in a country, your car has to meet the safety standards of that country.

by Beldin 3y ago

NoRelToEmber 3y ago

But if a product does not comply with EU standards, it is illegal to sell/import/use it in the EU regardless of if the trademark owner allows its sale - it's not up to them. So yes, deputizing trademark owners to police imports, on the off chance that maybe sometimes their decisions will align with other consumer-protection laws, is always fully anti-consumer.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

hef19898 3y ago

There is a whole industry around the import of US cars that are not directly sold in the EU. You can even register them with the US rear lights, in Germany. The absence of an EU CoC makes this a tack costly and lengthy, but it is absolutely possible. Coming back to the video, I think it is more an issue around Nikon US, eBay US and the seller. I don't think Nikon, or any other Japanese camera brand, are blocking international resale of used gear on eBay in general, there are way to many private and commercial sellers in Japan shipping through eBay to the US and the EU for thatbto be true. Also, with all the account blocking stories and copy right take downs being discussed on HN basically every day, why do we all assume it is Nikon's "fault"? I mean eBay is a party in this, too.

lloeki 3y ago
> There is a whole industry around the import of US cars that are not directly sold in the EU Same in France. The requirement when buying a foreign car is that it must get vetted by the DRIRE (ex Mines), which might be easy (e.g a EU car typically already has a registered entry because vehicles are extremely similar to identical) or hard (e.g US cars being subject to different regulations), but if one vehicle of a specific type went through the process it now has an entry as well and it's a matter of checking that the ingress vehicle matches the previous entry, fast tracking the process. IIRC there are provisions for historical cars (véhicules de collection, i.e > 30yo) that are allowed to not be compliant with current regulations as long as they're stock (except for some bits, e.g IIRC tyres must be upgraded to radial tyres to be road-worthy). Still lengthy and costly. (caveat: it's been a long time since I got interested in the process, things may have changed)
- lttlrck 3y ago
  By comparison, I imported a 32 year old car into the UK from Germany and it wasn't even inspected... I applied for plates and they turned up in the mail. After that I did the MOT (road worthiness inspection).

ajsnigrutin 3y ago

You can still import a car with wrong tail lights, half a car, just the tail lights or a car without the tail lights. You just can't register such a car in europe to be used as a "local car" (have plates of the current country) and driven on public streets. You can also drive into europe with such a car (as long as it's legal in it's main country, and there is a treaty made by EU-that_country). While US cars are a rare thing to see here, there are a bunch of british right-hand drive cars all around europe driven by british drivers, that have bliding headlights for everyone else (becase the shape of the beam is different), and EU has no issues with that. You can even buy one in EU... but to register it under eg. german plates, you'll have to modify (well, replace) the headlights (not sure about the wheel).

camtarn 3y ago
> there are a bunch of british right-hand drive cars all around europe driven by british drivers, that have bliding headlights for everyone else (becase the shape of the beam is different), and EU has no issues with that. I'm not sure whether the EU has a law about this, but most mainland EU countries mandate that UK cars crossing over to the EU mainland must fit headlight beam deflectors to prevent this issue. British drivers with cars that blind people are probably ignoring this law.
- jen20 3y ago
  Many cars have a switch on the lights to redirect the beam for exactly this reason.
mcv 3y ago
Wait, is it legal to drive a car that does not meet safety regulations as long as the car is registered in another country? That sounds like a really bad idea. What if a country allows you to drive any sort of thoroughly unsafe Mad Max vehicle without seatbelts or airbags, and an excess of unsafe spikes everywhere? There's got to be a point where that kind of car can't be legally driven in other countries, right? I would expect that, to drive in a country, your car has to meet the safety standards of that country.