contract-law business
Is &quot;not available for resale&quot; a legally enforceable statement?
<p>I've seen this label on coke cans at one point, and I was wondering: is this legally enforceable?</p>
<p>If it's not, is it possible for a retailer in any way to disallow the resale of an item purchased?
Something like, I don't know, maybe a license you have to agree to in order to be allowed to purchase said item?</p>
<p>This comes in the larger context of these new tech releases (GPUs, consoles) and how the producers/retailers could legally prevent scalpers.</p>

<p><a href="/questions/tagged/united-states" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;united-states&#39;" rel="tag">united-states</a></p>
<h3>No, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine" rel="nofollow noreferrer">first-sale doctrine</a> makes this unenforceable</h3>
<p>Once a product is sold to a retail consumer, it is generally theirs to do with as they wish, including reselling it.  The company likely intends this restriction to apply to distributors/retailers with whom it has contracts: it would likely be a violation of their distribution contract to, say, open a 12-pack of Coke and sell the individual cans.</p>
<p>An exception to this doctrine is licensed software.  Because it is licensed and not sold, there's not a product that the consumer could legally resell; the license is not required to be transferrable.</p>
<p>As far as license agreements to prevent this go, it's been tried: Lexmark sold toner cartridges with a patent license agreement banning refilling and reuse.  It ended up at the Supreme Court in <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2016/15-1189" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International, Inc.</a>, where Lexmark lost.</p>
