Retailer Supply Policy

Jun 17, 2024 Organised Play Team

Changes to this Policy - September 30, 2024

MAP on Heavy Hitters, Heavy Hitters Blitz Decks and Round the Table: TCC x LSS updated to 35% discount on MSRP

Changes to this Policy - June 17, 2024

Unilateral Retail Price Policy added for USA & Canada.

Changes to this Policy - May 13, 2024

Armory Deck Kayo, Armory Deck Boltyn added to MAP policy
MAP on Bright Lights, Dusk till Dawn, Outsiders, Outsiders Blitz Decks, History Pack 1 Blitz Decks, Dynasty, History Pack 1 & 2 Black Label, Uprising, Uprising Blitz Decks updated to 35% discount on MSRP

Introduction

“To bring people together in the flesh and blood through the common language of playing great games” is the primary mission of Legend Story Studios.

The intention of this policy is to acknowledge the importance of retailers who enable and support this mission, and to make the expectations of Legend Story Studios transparent to our retailers and supply chain partners across the world.

Each retailer that enters into business relations with Legend Story Studios or one of our official distributors, is expected to comply with this policy to the extent permissible by the governing laws within their jurisdiction.

This policy may be updated from time to time, with notice of updates published in the retailer news center of fabtcg.com.

Definitions

Unless otherwise defined within this policy, the following terms are defined as follows:

Sealed Product: Unopened Flesh and Blood TCG booster packs, decks, and box set products, included but not limited to the forms of; pallets, cases, retail display boxes, booster packs, hero decks, and box sets.

Single Cards: Individual Flesh and Blood TCG cards sourced from a Sealed Product.

Box Breaks: The act of selling and/or marketing the sale of sealed product to end users by way of opening the sealed product via a viewable interface, such as a live stream.

UPP: Unilateral retail price policy.

MAP: Minimum advertised price.

MSRP: Manufacturer’s suggested retail price.

Online Sales: The making available of Sealed Product or Single Cards to purchase using any medium that is connected to the internet or by other ways of electronic data transfer, that enables a transaction to occur for the Sealed Product or Single Cards without the customer being present at the location of the Sealed Product or Single Cards.

Retailer Types and Eligibility

A retailer must meet the criteria of one or more of the following Retailer Types to be eligible for an official distributor to supply them with Flesh and Blood TCG products:

Bricks and Mortar Gaming Store

The retailer’s primary business involves operating a bonafide bricks and mortar gaming store with table space available for customers to play games offered for sale by the retailer.

Single Card Website (legacy accounts)

The retailer operates an independent online Single Card website, with the marketed homepage being a registered domain name owned by the customer that does not redirect to a third party website, and which has been continually offering Flesh and Blood single cards to consumers since prior to October 1, 2020. Legend Story Studios, at its sole discretion, may make exceptions on a case by case basis in markets where access to single cards is restricted due to a lack of specialist third party card marketplaces. As of January 25th 2023, only the APAC region will be considered for such exceptions and applicants must demonstrate an established connection to the Flesh and Blood community

European Supply Policy

European legislation contains particular guidelines relating to the eligibility of stores to access product from distributors. Specific to Europe, the following store eligibility criteria apply;

An Eligible Retailer is any retailer that:

(a) is a properly registered business in the relevant jurisdiction;

(b) markets and sells products solely to end consumers or other Eligible Retailers belonging to the Network in the Territory;

offers a table space suitable for demonstrating board games, trading card games and other products offered by the retailer to consumers and hosting organised play (including tournaments), which allows at least four (4) players to sit around the table;
is open to the public (which, for the avoidance of doubt, does not include access to premises by request and/or payment and click and collect storage warehouse) for general retail purposes (for unarranged browsing );
which trading hours shall be no fewer than 15 hours in any trading week;
has posted exterior signage identifying the name and opening hours of the business that allow members of the public to identify the premises of the retailer and when they can access the business;
operates in commercial premises authorized to welcome public and to be used for retail purposes. For the sake of clarity, any temporary premises such as, but not limited to, corners or pop-up stores are excluded;
stocks other trading card games, physical board games and associated accessories; and

(d) has employee(s) in store trained for the sale and demonstration of trading card games (which includes being able to introduce players to the game, educate them about the basic rules and run in person organised play). Any retailer which has sold Flesh and Blood products for at least one (1) year, or is currently registered as a Wizards Play Network (WPN) store, a Play! Pokémon Store, or an Official Konami Tournament Store (OTS) is deemed to fulfil this condition. Alternatively, retailers that have sold Flesh and Blood for less than a year or new retailers can register for a training session with Legend Story Studios to acquire the required knowledge to sell the products and be considered as having employee duly trained for the purpose of this criterion.

An Eligible Retailer can sell the Products online under the following conditions:

(a) the website should be operated by the retailer itself and under its name/brand. The use of third parties’ visible platforms (e.g. cardmarket, Amazon, c-discount, etc) is allowed only if the retailer is operating an account on the relevant platform that clearly identifies the retailer's name, brand and address. The use of Legend Story Studio's or any distributor’s names / brands in the name of the website is prohibited;

(b) the Eligible Retailer shall indicate in a visible manner on its website and, if relevant, on its account on a third-party platform that

the Products are demonstrated in its physical store upon request and that advice from trained employees is available in the physical store or through a contact form.
organised play will be arranged from time to time, indicating where information can be obtained on such organised play.”

Online Sale of Sealed Product

Flesh and Blood Sealed Product may only be sold online by Bricks and Mortar Gaming Stores.

For the avoidance to doubt, Bricks and Mortar Gaming Stores and Single Card Websites may sell Single Cards online.

Box Breaks

Box breaks may not occur before 3PM NZT on the marketed in-store prerelease event date of a product, or if there are no prerelease events for a sealed product, not before 12:01AM NZT on the official release date of the sealed product. For the avoidance of doubt, World Premiere events are NOT prerelease events.

For all other intents and purposes, Box Breaks are considered to be the sale of sealed product.

Release of Sealed Products

It is normal for retailers to physically receive product prior to the release date. This may be to enable them to run a prerelease event in their store, or in order to have product on hand to sell and fulfill orders on release day.

A retailer may not disclose the contents of a sealed product before the prerelease event date of a sealed product, or if there are no prerelease events, not before the official release date of a sealed product. The only exception to this clause is when a retailer has received written instruction from Legend Story Studios to open product as part of a preview season marketing campaign.

A retailer may not release product to customers prior to 12:01AM on the advertised street release day for a new product, including commencing fulfillment via mail or delivery service. For the avoidance of doubt, retailers may solicit sales prior to this date, and may release product to customers for specifically approved programmes such as prerelease events.

Unilateral Retail Price Policy

For all products releasing from July 12, 2024, Legend Story Studios is moving from a Minimum Advertised Price Policy to a Unilateral Retail Pricing Policy. This policy has been introduced as we believe that the policy guidelines are clearer as to the expectations that are placed on stores. The terms of the policy are as follows;

Legend Story Studios (LSS) has established this Unilateral Retail Pricing Policy (UP Policy) as a means of promoting fair competition across all distribution channels, maintaining margin integrity for retailers, and protecting Flesh and Blood’s brand. This UP Policy applies to all Retailers that have a base of operations in the United States of America and Canada. Such Retailers must sell Flesh and Blood TCG Sealed Product consistent with this UP Policy. Failing to do so is a violation of this UP Policy, which may affect the non-compliant Retailer’s future ability to obtain Flesh and Blood products and/or other sanctions discussed below at LSS’s sole discretion.

The Sealed Products to which this UP Policy applies are listed below. This UP Policy will be enforced until such time that an announcement is posted in the Retailer News section of fabtcg.com, stating that the price has been adjusted or the product has been removed from the UP Policy. Newly announced Sealed Products are also subject to this UP Policy. MSRP on new Sealed Products will be included in their product announcement articles.

The Sealed Products subject to UPP at a price per display equivalent are:

The Hunted Boosters $99.90 USD/ $134.90 CAD per display

The Sealed Products subject to UPP of MSRP minus 20% are:

This UP Policy for listed Sealed Products applies to the actual sale price at point-of-sale (whether in-store or online checkout). While every Retailer is free to set its final sale price, failure to comply with this UP Policy may affect the non-compliant Retailer’s future ability to obtain Flesh and Blood products and/or other sanctions discussed below at LSS’s sole discretion.

Changes to this UP Policy will occur from time to time as determined LSS and at its sole discretion. Such changes may be communicated from Legend Story Studios or from an official distribution partner as listed here https://b2b.legendstory.com.

Breaches of this UP Policy

Retailers that do not comply with this UP Policy will be given a notice to comply and 24 hours to become compliant with this UP Policy. If non-compliance continues, LSS, in its sole discretion, may impose sanctions on the non-compliant Retailer including but not limited to: temporary suspension of supply, delisting from public store directories, cease and desist of use of trademarks and copyright images, and/or permanent suspension of supply and termination of business relations. LSS has implemented this UP Policy unilaterally and will enforce it unilaterally and at LSS’s sole discretion based on information deemed sufficient by LSS. Any enforcement decisions taken by LSS are final and will not be the subject of negotiation.

Reports of potential breaches of this UP Policy may be reported to LSS at op@fabtcg.com

Legend Story Studios relies on the wider community to help bring potential breaches to our attention. We thank all Retailers for respecting this UP Policy and holding each other to account in the interest of fair competition and to support of the mission to “Bring people together in the flesh and blood through the common language of playing great games.”

The Minimum Advertised Price Policy (MAP) as posted on fabtcg.com remains in effect

Minimum Advertised Price (MAP)

Retailers that have a base of operations within following territories must sell Flesh and Blood TCG Sealed Product with a MAP:

United States of America
Canada

Minimum advertised pricing supports the goal of promoting fair competition across all distribution channels in the territories, maintaining margin integrity for all retailers and brand value for end-users.

The MAP for each Sealed Product below is listed below and will be enforced until such time that an announcement is posted in the Retailer News section of fabtcg.com, stating that the MAP has been adjusted or removed for that Sealed Product. Newly announced products are subject also subject to MAP and this will be included in their product announcement articles. The products which are subject to this MAP policy include:

Products subject to a MAP of MSRP minus 20%;

Products subject to a MAP of MSRP minus 35%;

The MAP set out by Legend Story Studios for each Sealed Product does not apply to the price at point-of-sale, only to any advertised price for a Sealed Product subject to MAP. The retailer determines the final price at point-of-sale, whether in-store or online checkout.

A retailer must not publicly advertise the price of a Sealed Product subject to MAP at a price lower than the applicable MAP.

The mediums which may classify as an advertisement of price include but are not limited to; flyers, posters, coupons, mailers, inserts, newspapers, magazines, catalogs, television, radio, and public signage, as well as internet sites, social media sites, apps, or any other electronic media.

Internet auctions may not display or have reserved bid or other acceptable prices below MAP, including no reserve or best offer formats.

Compliance of product bundles will be assessed according to the MAP that may apply to the constituent items in the bundle.

This MAP policy may be communicated to retailers by Legend Story Studios or an official distribution partner as listed here https://b2b.legendstory.com.

Breaches

Retailers who are found to be in breach of this policy will be given notice to remedy the breach within 24 hours otherwise disciplinary action will be taken against them which may include but is not limited to; temporary suspension of supply, delisting from public store directories, cease and desist of use of trademarks and copyright images, and/or permanent termination of business relations. LSS has implemented this policy unilaterally and will enforce it unilaterally and at LSS’s sole discretion based on information deemed sufficient by LSS. Any enforcement decisions taken by LSS are final and will not be the subject of negotiation.

Reports of potential breaches of this policy may be reported to op@fabtcg.com

Legend Story Studios relies on the wider community to help bring potential breaches to our attention. We thank all retailers for respecting this policy and holding each other to account in the interest of fair competition, to support of the mission to “Bring people together in the flesh and blood through the common language of playing great games.”

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