Sony's Win a Major Blow for Importers

Joan Cross writes "Sony won a battle in the UK Courts over the importing to Europe of Playstation Portables by Lik Sang. They say that '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'. Of course, the PSP comes supplied with a 100-240v adapter which is safe worldwide. Lik Sang has posted their reaction to the court decision. Could be bad news for those wanting PS3 Consoles on import."

Comments

Re:bah,

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

Actually, there's no confirmation whether or not Sony's losing thier pants on the ps3...

But still, Sony Computer Ent. Europe does lose money, even if Sony Computer Ent Japan doesn't. Mostly because they track their
sales and revunue seperately from each other.

Oh, I agree, it's stupid, but i'm just pointing out the logic of why it's both true and it's stupid.

Re:Globalization

[Anonymous Coward]

"Frankly this pisses me off. I'm getting fucked over both ways."

Yup, except it's a 4-way, not a 3-way. Globalization ultimately works around nation governments too; thus, there is little effective oversight on the international level to force fair play on multi-national interests.

For example, there are no international anti-trust or price fixing laws that I'm aware of. This has a signficant effect on pricing as well as penetration (pun not intended), such as allowing established industries (e.g. RIAA and MPAA) to charge emerging markets far less for their products. Meanwhile, established markets pay full price, or artificially higher than what would normally be decided by the market (due to intellectual propery laws i.e. patents, copyright). This is why we see can see the same exact products being sold in the US, Mexico, and China go for far far less in the last 2 countries. US and EU college students see this with book pricing. MS OS pricing in Asia indicates this as well.

iow, in some ways, you are essentially subsidizing what amounts to a product loss leader to establish a brand in up and coming markets. In other ways, you are denying fair competition on those emerging markets when they should be protected; those poorer nations have little choice but to abide due to pressure from wealthier nations. (And I believe this is somewhat similar to one of the arguments made against the $100 PC.)

Conversely, those same laws can be used to deny products in those poorer countries as well. In doesn't make logical sense until you realize that companies don't want this importing to occur back to wealthier countries they are established in (see certain aspects of the pharmaceutical industry, although I think they have a fairer policy than the copyright industry groups).

Re:Globalization

[Bertie]

They charge VAT on FOOD?

Wow.

Here in the UK, the general attitude has always been that there's no VAT on necessities, so food, books, and children's clothes, among other things, don't have any (but if you eat in a restaurant, you pay VAT, by the way). I was amazes when a Spanish colleague of mine told me the other day that he had to pay VAT on the house he just bought, but food? That's insane.

Re:Simple solution.....

[mrchaotica]

Sony themselves have to meet the legal standards before they can import their products to the EU. Shouting 'foul' when someone else tries to bypass those requirements is not unreasonable.

WTF?!

Sony and Lik Sang are both trying to sell exactly the same damn thing -- PSPs. If the ones sold directly (by Sony) meet the requirements, then the ones sold through a middleman (Lik Sang) do too!

What about other countries?

[protomala]

I'm curious to listen what Sony have to say about countries not served importing units.
You know, they never released any playstation here in Brazil.