Very interesting development, that's were anti-competitive practices will get you.  Good on them for suing, I hope they win.  I can't imagine how businesses like M&M have sufferred because of this decision by the Moco.

Excellent I hope they beat the MoCo so that the USA dealers are able to sell outside of the USA again.

I know it hurts the Australian Harley Dealers but they should re-think their profit margins and give the local Australian harley riders a fair go and pass on decent price savings.

Also reduce the price on all of the Harley motorcycles to properly reflect the Australian dollar. I don't really care if I get less of a trade, in the long run it should be cheaper to purchase and that to me is a big saving. They never want to give you a good trade in price no matter what the Australian dollar is doing.

A Harley-Davidson dealership in St. Paul, Minn., has sued the motorcycle company for what it says are unfair restrictions on international sales and business through websites.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Minnesota, St. Paul Harley-Davidson complained about new restrictions that Harley set on methods for selling motorcycle parts, accessories and clothing. The dealership argued it was losing money and that its business was in jeopardy as a result of the restrictions put in place in August. It claimed to have earned $8 million a year in revenue from 2008 through 2010 from what are now forbidden sales.

"These new policies are highly controversial and may be arguable. We certainly do not feel it is fair when we've spent years building a customer-serviceoriented business to promote the brand worldwide," Tom Giannetti, president of St. Paul Harley-Davidson, said on his website.

"These changes would deprive (the dealership) of literally millions of dollars of annual revenues, thereby jeopardizing its ability to remain in business," the lawsuit noted.

Harley-Davidson dealers can no longer sell Harley-Davidson parts and accessories to any customer outside the United States, according to the lawsuit. Also, beginning Jan. 1, 2012, U.S. dealers may not sell new parts or accessories on third-party websites, such as eBay and Amazon.com.

The policy revisions illegally alter the company's franchise agreement with dealers, the lawsuit claims.

Harley-Davidson, which strongly protects its brand, doesn't see it that way. "We disagree with the premise of the lawsuit," said company spokeswoman Maripat Blankenheim, declining to comment further.

St. Paul Harley-Davidson has been in business since the 1940s and says it has a company-approved website.

"For the time being, St. Paul Harley-Davidson will continue selling and shipping our products overseas. However, this policy could change at any time," Giannetti said. "Because this situation is so tentative, we urge all of our overseas customers to place orders without delay." For years, many motorcycle dealerships have sold parts, accessories, cloth- ing and bikes on third-party websites such as eBay.

But that doesn't make it a good idea, said Chaz Hastings, owner of Milwaukee Harley-Davidson.

"Once you start offering a wholesale process to the public, it can diminish the value of the brand and the customer service that people expect," Hastings said.

Some dealerships have used websites to sell off large volumes of parts and accessories, or to sell things that languished on their shelves. The profit margins are low in that practice, Hastings said.

"I would guarantee you that some of those guys were losing money," he said about Harley-Davidson dealers who sold through third-party websites.

Also, if someone bought a Harley-Davidson part or accessory online, they sometimes expected their local dealership to handle any warranty issues -- regardless of where the sale was from.

"These sales end up coming back to the dealer, and the company, as problems," Hastings said.

Some people have traveled thousands of miles to buy a Harley-Davidson motorcycle in Milwaukee. It's probably not cheaper here, although you may be able to negotiate a better price because there are more area dealerships to choose from.

Milwaukee Harley-Davidson will pay a customer's one-way airfare here if they buy a bike from them. They also pay for a stay at The Iron Horse Hotel, tickets to the Harley-Davidson Museum and for other perks such as dinner at a nightclub.

The out-of-town buyer pays full price for the new bike, and the dealership recovers part of its costs by selling accessories, clothing and other items often purchased with a new motorcycle.

The number of bikes sold through the fly-and-buy program isn't large enough to hurt dealerships in other states, according to Hastings, and it doesn't reduce the dealership's obligation to service the bike after the sale.

"We pay a premium to have a dealership. And there are a lot of things expected from us," Hastings said

good move ,!!!!!!!!!!!! about time someone has the balls to have a go .

Its definitely one to follow closely, with any luck the case sticks and we're all free to shop from the USA again!! It's about time someone had a crack at it, wont take long till a few other vendors jump on board if this case is successful.

Im sure Harley will go bankrupt soon with this new policy. They almost went broke recently and had to offload Buell and restructure. Wait till they get the sales figures in, definitely will be down unless they are also making more profit when they sell wholesale to Overseas dealers. I know myself and a few others spend less on HD parts since this thing started. If I cant get it cheap and easy off M&M or someone like that in the US then Im just not going to go through the pain and expense of having to order it locally from the stealer. My brother recenly bought a new touring bike, a bloody Goldwing for gods sake. When I asked him why he didnt go with HD he said the Honda was a better price and offered more modern extras on the bike like airbag (yeah on a bloody bike), bluetooth etc etc and.....had more bling available online from the US. (Dont worry I disowned him for buying jap crap

If Aussie dealers were as pleasant to deal with as St Paul, I woulnt mind paying SLIGHTLY more to buy from them. I already paid a fair premium when i brought the bikes over the US pricing so Im not doing that with parts too. I dont see how our local dealers can critisise good US dealers when I know oflocal dealers who have travelled to the US brought and imported US bikes when the dollar was up, again to sell at a premium. whats yhe difference? Surely that is affecting the mo cos bottom line too? I really hope they win.

Email from St Paul Harley Davidson

 

Keen eye

 

I'd like to think many US Dealers will jump onto this. 'Class actions' are all the go in that litigious Country BUT will the Dealers be scared of possible repercussions from HD somewhere down the line?

HD's argument & justification will be interesting to hear come Court time as they're not the only ones pulling this stunt. There's a few European Companies not selling beyond Europe in the same way as HD have done.

It can't last - not in this Global internet selling World.

 

"I would guarantee you that some of those guys were losing money," he said about Harley-Davidson dealers who sold through third-party websites.



hahaha...sounds just like Gerry Harvey. Head firmly planted in the sand and loosing money to online sales but not smart enough to adapt to the new marketplace.

Games workshop have tried to pull the same thing in the US and the UK.

One way around it is to use a forwarding address/company.

There are also grey areas in the policies that allow the company to keep stock on hold for the remaining overseas sales.. The overseas sales are all but unaccounted for

What pisses me off with this shit about importing HD parts into Australia is Harley OZ don't give a flying fuck about the grey imports some of there dealers are selling totally screwing our resale prices. One fucking way street as normal and they can get fucked with there Chinese shit OME parts.