From maven's documentation about the import
scope:
This scope is only used on a dependency of type pom in the section. It indicates that the specified POM should be replaced with the dependencies in that POM's section. Since they are replaced, dependencies with a scope of import do not actually participate in limiting the transitivity of a dependency.
Frankly, this is usually isn't a very useful scope, and in any event it is not relevant for 3rd party jar
dependencies - only for 3rd party pom
dependencies. Where you place dependencies is somewhat a matter of taste, but the practice I found worked best for me was to place all the dependencies in the "lowest common denominator" pom's <dependencyManagement>
section, and then referencing them in the <dependencies>
section of the specific subprojects as needed.