I know people on HN like to bitch and moan about "$insert_name_of_big_evil_company not letting me do what I want". But there is more than this than meets the e

I know people on HN like to bitch and moan about "$insert_name_of_big_evil_company not letting me do what I want". But there is more than this than meets the eye. First, "grey market" is actually FAR more than just an inconvenience to $evil_big_corp. "grey market", ESPECIALLY in tech and chips, is a major source of so-called "missing trader fraud"[1] which comes in many forms including carousel fraud. This ends up adding up to billions in tax which has been fraudulently misappropriated. Before they started clamping down on it, it was a major problem in the EU in the early 2000s, but also in other forms elsewhere in the world. Governments worldwide have been clamping down on missing trader fraud for some time now, and it should not come as a surprise to anyone that large consumer electronics companies, whose kit is an obvious target to the fraudsters, have to play their role in tightening the supply chain. Second, if a company has a trademark then part of maintaining that trademark is to act upon illegal use of it. If you don't act on trademark infringement, whether counterfeit or otherwise, then theoretically your trademark could be at risk of formal challenge. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_trader_fraud https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_trader_fraud