What are the potential benefits from parallel imports?
Parallel trade in general is based on the principle of free movement of goods and has contributed to the development of the Internal Market to the extent that more products at different prices move from one national market to the other and are thus available to the purchaser. The Court has ruled (Case C 44/01 delivered on April 8, 2003 paragraph 63 of the judgement) that “in completing the Internal Market as an area without internal frontiers in which free competition is to be ensured, parallel imports play an important role in preventing the compartmentalisation of national markets”.
