MAHWAH, N.J. — D&M Holdings Inc. (TSE II: 6735), owner of the Denon, Marantz, McIntosh Laboratory, Boston Acoustics, Snell Acoustics, D&M Professional, ReplayTV and Escient brands, announced an aggressive new initiative aimed at stopping the unauthorized sales of its products over the Internet. As part of the new approach to end unauthorized web sales activity, D&M has set up a new Internet compliance team and an enforcement process that will work to identify violators, warn them of potential legal action and if necessary, prosecute offenders through legal action. As part of its enforcement initiative, D&M has set up a dedicated web address, webenforcement@dm-holdings-na.com, to provide an immediate communications link for reps wishing to report potential violators.
To help prevent any unauthorized Internet sales activity, D&M will also utilize a variety of advanced Internet search technologies and proven techniques, ensuring that products from all D&M brands are distributed only by authorized distributors and dealers, and that all D&M retailers follow the terms of their signed agreements. The D&M initiative also includes an Internet sales enforcement policy that calls for immediate evaluation and potential termination of any D&M retailer who violates their agreement with D&M by transshipping D&M goods. D&M will also investigate and consider enforcement proceedings against unauthorized internet retailers who induce authorized D&M dealers to breach their contractual relationships with D&M by selling products on the Internet. Finally, D&M intends to vigilantly enforce its rights against those who infringe on D&M trademarks, illegally use D&M’s copyrighted materials, or otherwise compete unfairly with D&M.
Noted Bob Weissburg, President, D&M Sales and Marketing, North America: “Authorized Internet sales are an increasingly important source of business for all D&M brands, and provide a valuable service for our valued customers. We have always worked hard to ensure that our Internet resellers meet the same rigorous standards for quality and customer service that have always defined the integrity of our brands. Unfortunately, it has been our experience that some unauthorized resellers tamper with the merchandise, sometimes removing factory serial numbers to obfuscate the source of the goods, which voids the warranty. We believe that by any measure, these types of activities are unethical, represent a violation of trust and do a grave disservice to the consumer. We’re confident that our aggressive new initiative to identify violators, combined with our strict enforcement policy, will help us to quickly discover the few dealers who are in violation of their agreements as well as those who are inducing such violations, and put a stop to such practices.”
About D&M Holdings Inc.
D&M Holdings Inc. (TSE II: 6735) is based in Tokyo and owns the Denon, Marantz, McIntosh Laboratory, Boston Acoustics, Snell Acoustics, D&M Professional, ReplayTV and Escient brands. Denon, Marantz, McIntosh and D&M Professional are global industry leaders in the specialist home theater, audio/video consumer electronics or professional audio markets, with a strong and long-standing heritage of manufacturing and marketing high-performance audio and video components. Boston Acoustics, with its signature The Boston Sound, ™ is a leader in premium loudspeakers for home and audio markets. Snell is a super premium speaker brand. The ReplayTV and Escient brands represent award-winning technologies in digital home entertainment. Additional information is available at http://www.dm-holdings.com.
