Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Parallel imports definition

What does Parallel imports mean? Parallel imports (the “grey market”) describe the purchase of genuine, branded goods in one country and their importation for resale into another without the rights holder’s permission. They commonly arise in IP-heavy sectors (trade marks, copyright, designs, patents). The core legal issue is exhaustion of rights: if the relevant IP rights are exhausted in the destination market, resale is lawful; if not, importation and sale may infringe. This is a descriptive term, not a defined statutory label, but the rules are set by legislation and case law on exhaustion and infringement (for example, Trade Marks Act 1994, s12, and EU...

Parallel imports and trade mark exhaustion in the UK post-Brexit: EEA one-way exhaustion, consent, repackaging (BMS), enforcement and remedies

Published by a LexisNexis IP expert

Practice notes

The legal framework

This Practice Note outlines the rules of trade mark law governing parallel trade. parallel imports—often called ‘grey market’ products—are authentic items put on sale by, or with the approval of, the rights holder, but later brought into a specific market for resale without that holder’s permission. They are distinct from counterfeits or ‘black market’ items. For guidance on counterfeit goods, see: Anti-counterfeiting—overview. Key rules derive from the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and Directive (EU) 2015/2436, which regulates national trade mark registrations across Member States and is given effect in the UK through the Trade Marks Act 1994 (TMA 1994). This Practice Note details how UK trade mark law addresses parallel imports. It examines the circumstances in which a trade mark proprietor’s rights are exhausted and when the rights holder can block grey market goods from being offered in the UK. It also clarifies how the post-brexit EU parallel import regime interacts with UK rules, and the practical effects for items first placed on the market in the UK then sent to the EEA, and those first sold in the EEA and later brought into the UK...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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