Over the past few years, Australia has seen exclusive rights laws which grant (normally) sole agency of a product by a manufacturer. This means that it is against the law to import an exclusive (whether new or used) until the contract has expired between the distributor and the manufacturer. Even if the distributor is not willing to import a product, if they are the exlusive agent for the entire range, it is still illegal to import the said product. Experience has shown prices at much higher than open market value and has been a contributing factor to the poor condition of the current Australian market.
AMD was a high profile campaigner to stop exclusive rights, encouraging donations and accepting money from operators across Australia to fight the overturn of this law in the courts. Last year's AMOA's coinman of 1999 was Peter Hankin for his efforts in fighting exclusive rights.
But there has been growing scepticism from some Australian distributors and operators about AMD's public intentions to stop exclusive rights where privately they have tried to negotiate exclusive contracts.
Through various sources it has been suggested that AMD tried to gain exclusive products such as Tekken Tag, and others whilst still promoting to stop exclusive rights. With the latest exclusive agreement on Golden Tee Fore, it will add more fuel to the fire about AMD's intentions.
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On a story previously published in HG that exclusive rights may be overturned by the Australian government enabling open competiton, the government is very close to placing this into law and creating an open trading market.
