Support NeoGAF

[Acosta]

Lik Sang's sales of Sony PSP Consoles illegal, according to London High Court Judge

Not happy with being a worthless division unable to defend the interest of their users (we have PSP and PS3 to demostrate it), the sales hand of SCEE dedicate more effort to make sink a small import company like Lik Sang than satisfy their customer´s demand.

Hong Kong, October 20th of 2006 - Lik-Sang.com, leading online retailer for videogame systems, games and cutting-edge gaming gear, was today informed that Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc have obtained a judgment in the High Court of London ruling PSP sales of the popular web store to the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA) unlawful.

The court hearing took place on October 9 at the High Court of London, without Lik-Sang's legal representatives attending or arguing at the hearing. It is unclear at this point if this ruling will also affect exports of PlayStation 3 and other PlayStation-branded items. Furthermore, Sony intends to obtain an UK injunction against Lik-Sang's sales to the EEA.

The legal battle with Sony over Lik-Sang's legitimate exporting activities started during August 2005. Sony complained about the sales of PSP (PlayStation Portable) systems to Europe and launched a lawsuit in the High Court of Hong Kong, arguing that Lik-Sang advertises the Sony products "in a dishonest manner" and "unlawfully interferes with Sony's economical interests". They further launched a completely separate lawsuit against the Hong Kong based company in the courts of England for selling PSP consoles to customers in Europe and the UK, and also for mirroring the freely available PSP user guides on their servers alleging copyright infringement.

Hong Kong's laws are clear when it comes to parallel trade, and the company has no ties whatsoever with the UK. While Lik-Sang vigorously contested the UK's jurisdiction over the allegations, the judge apparently found that UK law should also apply to Hong Kong exporters. Sony has also threatened Lik Sang recently to initiate yet another lawsuit to prevent the sales of PlayStation 3 consoles to Europe.

How this decision will affect Lik-Sang's business is not entirely known at this time. The retailer is currently exploring its legal options and analyzing the consequences of this ruling.

"Fighting multiple lawsuits in different countries at the same time and paying high premiums to expensive lawyers is an overwhelming situation for a small company like Lik Sang. Launching separate court actions with separate claims and different judges is completely unnecessary, except for the fact that it helps reaching one single target: outspend Lik-Sang to death. Pay beyond", said Pascal Clarysse, Marketing Manager of Lik-Sang.com, clearly annoyed by the unfair situation. "And contrary to their claim, I don't believe they are suffering 'losses and damages' through Lik-Sang's activity".

So, dear european gaffers, our market sucks, we know, but not only that, SCEE pretends we can´t do anything to solve it for ourselves. In this new era, where Amazon or Ebay sell items worldwire, we still have to adapt our demand strictly to what the European Union market has to offer for videogamers.

And, what´s the point of PS3 being worldwire compatible if they cut our most used import channel?. Play-Asia can´t sell PSP products to EU (of course, there is no problem for USA) and who knows if they will ban PS3 products as well.

Less lawyers and more work is what I say. If there is demand for imports, SCEE should know that is because they are not doing a good job at all.

 

[JonathanEx]

There's already been a thread for this, but the press release is new. I love how they snuck in "Pay Beyond" in there.

 

[Kiriku]

Is Lik Sang really a small import company? I thought they were pretty big as far as gaming-related import companies go.

 

[DefectiveReject]

Well done Sony.
Well done. Show Europe, that they really can wait until March!!

 

[KurowaSan]

it certainly sucks :\ i hope we can still import PS3/PSP games from Lik Sang, though (because Sony only seems to care when they sell consoles)

 

[Brobzoid]

blargh... SCEE sucks balls. Although I never used lik-sang.. they're expensive :\

 

[Diablohead]

blargh... SCEE sucks balls. Although I never used lik-sang.. they're expensive :\

Moto gp 06 for £19 says hi

 

[callous]

What I don't get is what makes them believe a UK court decision is valid for the whole EEA. A UK ruling sure as hell doesn't make it illegal to import stuff to my country.