I'm not entirely familiar with the policies of other Festool subsidiaries in other countries, but Festool USA/Canada has chosen not to sell direct at this time. Until 2008, we did sell direct.

I don't know that I've denied the existence of any tools that have been publicly announced overseas, so I'm not sure what you're referring to. I even have a thread that's maintained that announces the ETA of tools that are NAINA (not available in North America). However, beyond this forum you aren't going to hear Festool USA employees discussing these products. Why? Well, they are focused on talking about products we currently sell. What's the point of talking about them if we don't have them? Plus, they may not even be aware of them in some instances. I've been with Festool for 7 years now and don't know anything about quite a few tools that aren't available in our market.

Also, we make every effort to provide our dealers with clear communication about anticipated tool launches in advance of our customers. This gives them an opportunity to become educated about the products and prepare for the launch rather than being blindsided by customers asking about something that they know nothing about. Granted, there are several dealers represented here on the forum that would know about these products, but generally most of our dealers don't spend their free time reading the FOG about NAINAs and rather spend their time selling the tools in their inventories. 

Hope that answers your questions. If not, let me know.

PS - Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your recently purchased first Festools.

Shane Holland
Festool USA

You can't buy directly from Festool UK. Even though you can add an item to your cart on the Festool UK website, you still have to select an online retailer at the end. 

I didn't even think of checking that, but you're right. The same goes for other sites with a shopping cart. So you're still not ordering directly from Festool, all that the website does is provide an interface for their dealers.