Legal Question in Business Law in New York

In general, you are free to resell any lawfully purchased item and you are not required to purchase from an authorized source, but doing so ensures the best chances that you are dealing in legit product. If the products turn out to be counterfeit you are responsible for that unless you have a written indemnification from the seller, which case depending may be worthless. Further, if what you have amounts to a grey-market good because it is "materially different" from what your target market would otherwise expect, this is also a form of trademark infringement, An example of this would be some electronics you purchase on close-out that are all Apple brand legit but made for the Russian market and therefore have different components and no warranty. This of course is not what your US market would expect to buy and is materially different enough to cause a legal issue.

Further, if you are using third-party platforms to distribute your products such as Amazon, Alibaba, eBay, etc. know that many brand owners abuse the system and seek to mitigate unauthorized channels by claiming infringement even when no such trademark infringement exists. These platforms have no choice but to respond which usually means that your listing are shut down, sometimes your accounts are closed and really with no recourse regards to the platform as you operate on them on their terms not yours. While you may have a legal action against the complaining party many small operators will never pursue such a claim because of the expense and effort involved, which these large players are well aware.

All said, the fragrance makers hate your idea and what they will do is claim that you are selling "materially different" product therefore they can take legal action to stop you. They may say that they lose the ability for quality control, etc. They may not have the best or strongest legal argument, but this will not stop them from causing you a lot of headaces. And if you miss a step, like for example you place their logo on one of your small repackaged bottles now they will have an even stronger trademark infringement complaint.

If you need clarification, feel free to contact me anytime that is convenient.

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Kind regards,

Frank

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DISCLAIMER: this is not intended to be specific legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. No attorney-client relationship is formed on the basis of this posting.