International Fashion Group has claimed an unprecedented victory in its battle to protect local stockists from “out of date” tax and duties laws.
After years of negotiations, the luxury denim importer has prevented the sale of True Religion, Paige Denim and AG Adriano Goldschmied jeans to domestic consumers from major international online stockists.
This follows ongoing campaigns by retailers to reduce the $1000 tax-free threshold for goods arriving into the country, arguing a lack of pricing protection for local stockists.
International Fashion Group general manager Jacki Bresic said global etailer Revolve has already stopped shipments to local customers, with Shopbop set to follow in May. The Sydney-based group is working with suppliers to phase out remaining etailers over coming months.
“For a while we thought we might not get there so the win on this initiative is quite amazing,” Bresic said. “It has definitely been arduous and around three years of constant negotiation. It was very important for us to negotiate these changes with our suppliers in an effort to protect our customers’ retail businesses.”
True Religion is stocked across 125 domestic retail stores, while Paige Denim is available in 95 locations and AG across 82. Bresic confirmed similar negotiations are also underway for other brands in its portfolio.
“It was an extremely long process but at the end of the day, these global brands felt it necessary to protect us from our own government’s out-of-date duty and tax law,” she said. “I also think the continued growth in the Australian retail market provided enough motivation for these brands to make it happen.”
Bresic said results from the initiative have already started to filter through.
“The retailers we have already communicated with have indicated the confidence in stocking a wider range of these brands. We have also exclusively designed product for the Australian market and special cuts that we place just for Australian retailers. These styles are unique to our market and can’t be bought online.”