Asian Importer's PSPs Illegal To Sell In Europe
A British judge has ruled in favor of Sony after a year-long legal dispute with online retailer Lik-Sang.
A little background: Sony has made it their mission to take legal action against anyone who commits grey importing of its consoles, and Lik-Sang was offering PSPs to the European Community through its corporate website: according to the suit, the PSPs were being sold “in a dishonest manner” and their sale was “unlawfully interferes with Sony’s economical interests”. Basically, Lik-Sang was trying to circumvent Sony’s legal complaints because it was based in Hong Kong and had no official presence in Europe… clearly the judge disagreed.
“Ultimately, we’re trying to protect consumers from being sold hardware that does not conform to strict EU or UK consumer safety standards, due to voltage supply differences et cetera; is not – in PS3’s case – backwards compatible with either PS1 or PS2 software; will not play European Blu-Ray movies or DVDs; and will not be covered by warranty.”
A British judge has ruled in favor of Sony after a year-long legal dispute with online retailer Lik-Sang.
A little background: Sony has made it their mission to take legal action against anyone who commits grey importing of its consoles, and Lik-Sang was offering PSPs to the European Community through its corporate website: according to the suit, the PSPs were being sold “in a dishonest manner” and their sale was “unlawfully interferes with Sony’s economical interests.” Basically, Lik-Sang was trying to circumvent Sony’s legal complaints because it was based in Hong Kong and had no official presence in Europe… clearly the judge disagreed.
“Ultimately, we’re trying to protect consumers from being sold hardware that does not conform to strict EU or UK consumer safety standards, due to voltage supply differences et cetera; is not – in PS3’s case – backwards compatible with either PS1 or PS2 software; will not play European Blu-Ray movies or DVDs; and will not be covered by warranty.”
According to an Ars Technica article on the same matter, though:
Sony’s safety concerns ring hollow, as the supposed culprit is the PSP power supply—which is an autosensing 110V to 240V unit that should work anywhere the plug fits. The “dishonest sales” argument, however, hits home for the PS3 case at least: Japanese or American units won’t be able to play European DVDs or Blu-ray discs, at least not without some sort of aftermarket mod, thanks to region encoding issues et cetera.
In the grand scheme of things, I think Sony is wrong to pursue legal action against importers
Boy of Tomorrow
Posted to on 23 October 2006
Other stuff like this: ars technica, bad business move, EU, grey importing, ps3 delays, psp, Sony
