Samsung has sent a letter to all its distributors warning that it will take legal action against anyone found selling grey stock outside the EU.

The problem centres on manufacturers’ inability to honour warranties on grey stock, as well as control prices, volumes and quality when its products are imported from outside the UK and eventually bought by British consumers.

The letter refers to the Levi-Strauss versus Tesco and Costco court cases, in which the clothing manufacturer successfully sued the two supermarkets for selling jeans bought in America.

Samsung believes it has a stronger case because of copyright infringement on its manuals and boxes used to replace foreign manuals.

Samsung has also cited safety issues, referring to the third-party three-pin UK chargers that are put alongside Samsung phones bought on the grey market.

The letter says: ‘‘Samsung takes the issue of trade mark infringement very seriously… Accordingly, Samsung reserves the right to take action it considers necessary to prevent distributors, dealers and retailers infringing its rights by dealing with such grey market handsets.’

Mark Mitchinson, Samsung UK VP, told Mobile: ‘Our aim with this letter was just to clarify our position. We’re not out to be suing our customers – we’re making the point that we would prefer that our customers don’t engage in importing our products.’

Several rival manufacturers endorsed Samsung’s position. ‘Samsung can totally do this. They would argue that the culprits are affecting the business Samsung are generating in the UK. There is also an integrity issue of operators and large retailers questioning the pricing when it is being offered cheaper by a distributor.’

Read the letter in full here