MAP agreements are illegal in EU. They were specifically banned, and for good reason. Which is why calling Shimano's stance a "refusal" to deal with some problem gets you a negative response.

Still, feel you on the retail apocalypse, and how every other new internet darling can somehow skirt taxes or... and the problem is unfixable until right after it doesn't matter anymore. It took something like twenty years for Amazon to start paying US sales taxes most of the time, in many cities Uber's business model was price dumping etc.