The first real European war of consumer electronics stores against e-commerce scams starts from Italy. "We are the first in Europe to move with investigators, sweeping online scouting and then with complaints against the freebooters of the network - announced Davide Rossi, president of the brand new Optime, the Permanent Observatory for the Protection of the Electronics Market in Italy , launched yesterday by Aires, the association that brings together Italian retail chains and groups of consumer electronics and household appliances - our members are increasingly damaged by the increase in unfair competition deriving from illicit online sales”.
The last sensational case was – as we have reported – that of the www.stockisti.com site, recently closed by the Postal Police for VAT evasion of 50 million euros which allowed for stratospheric margins, 20% higher to those of physical retail and "regular" e-commerce sites. And which are at the origin of the very low prices of the products - above all consumer electronics - sold on the site and on 49 others - and which are, so to speak, further enhanced by the lack of pre- and post-sales services, those which increase the costs of the regular shop off and online.
MALTESE, ROMANIAN AND ITALIAN
The site was managed with its 49 "open and close" sites by a Maltese company, by Italians and Romanians and with the complicity of top Milanese professionals. “Another positive factor of Optime – underlines Rossi – is that it represents the entire supply chain from the manufacturer to the retailer to the repairer. For the moment we are working on a six-month run-in period, then we will also open the doors to other external associations, so we will try, through a research entrusted to Eumetra, to investigate the reasons for the propensity to buy online on illicit sites and products, with prices that are too low to be justified. It is essential for us to understand and identify every aspect of this black market which takes resources and vital space away from the regular consumer electronics market which is worth around 1,5 billion Euros, a black market which often comes from the continuous thefts suffered by our associates who they have to bear very heavy burdens, laws and regulations”.
Davide Rossi, to whom we owe the design and preparation of Optime, cites two clamorous cases of the many advantages that the illicit traffic of e-commerce procures for digital crime. “For each private copy of works reproduced on smartphones, tablets and hard disks, a payment of 5,60 Euros is established by law, which these illicit companies do not pay. And then no free collection of the old appliance for each new purchase, as established by the WEEE discipline". And, we add, no two-year warranty: if the smartphone or mega TV purchased had any problems, stockists and the like have always refused to take care of it, so much so that in just two years the Stokkisti site had collected over 350 complaints while alleged customers they were constantly weaving fantastic praise and ultra-favorable reviews on their blogs.
COLOSSAL DAMAGE
Why did the very prudent groups and chains of consumer electronics retail decide to -finally- take a stand against online criminals who recycle, cheat, evade and then disappear unpunished? Because the damage is colossal. Other than chicken thieves - online - here we are talking about billions and the bill is quickly done. The last gang of electronics denounced and closed a typical Calabrian 'drina organization – in just two years it had invoiced 500 million euros (250 every year) by opening and closing (fake) offices, without giving guarantees, without paying VAT, without expenses if not those on the site (yes, but did Mandrake give them cell phones and TVs?).
Of these sites from Filibusta (a definition coined by the president of Aires, Alessandro Butali) there are several dozen, close to a hundred - also very active on the dark web - and consequently we can hypothesize a damage that will soon approach one billion euro out of a total online turnover for information technology and consumer electronics of approximately 3 billion with a +28% in 2016 (source: Netcomm).
And while in Italy Davide Rossi presented Optime, the bombshell of Media World-Saturn arrived, the German giant no longer controlled by Metro but by Ceconomic which has in these hours formalized the acquisition of the controlling share of the big French Fnac-Darty, sold from the Pinault family, that of luxury, for 450 million Euros. With giants like these the real war on organized crime on the web and with initiatives like Optime can have big results.
Source: “Paula's house"
