No PS3 imports for Europe, says Sony

[wraggster]

Sony has stated its intentions to prosecute companies for what it calls "grey importing" of its products, including the PS3, from other regions to within the EU.

This comes hot on the heels of Sony's court win against Hong Kong based online retailer Lik-Sang, the second time the two have clashed, this time over Lik-Sang's selling Japanese PSPs to EU customers. The judge found in favour of Sony, and deemed that various intellectual property rights had been violated by Lik-Sang's activities.

Sony also asserted its intentions to prosecute other retailers who sell the PS3 console--which is launching around three months earlier in Japan and the US--to Europeans desperate to get their hands on it for Christmas.

Sony stated: "The law is clear, grey importing PS2, PSP or PS3 into the EU, without the express permission of SCE is illegal. Therefore, we will utilise the full scope of the law to put a stop to any retailers who chose to do this."

The company explained the reasoning behind this policy as trying to "protect" European consumers "from being sold hardware that does not conform to strict EU or UK consumer safety standards (due to voltage supply differences etc.), [and] is not (in PS3's case) backwards compatible with either PS1 or PS2 software, [and] will not play European Blu-ray movies or DVDs, and will not be covered by warranty."

When asked if Sony would be pursuing private customers, such as those who advertise PS3s on auction sites such as eBay and offer to ship their own consoles overseas (for a price), a spokesperson said that Sony currently had no comment.

[JKKDARK]

Damn Sony, I will not get a PS3

[King of Fire]

well bad for european fans....

[808]

Erm, why is this so bad?

By the time March rolls around theres going to be a ton of games, the online network will be well established and any errors in the first models will be ironed out.

[tisti]

Well, if you want to wait for that, you can still do it, even if they were to release it...

"Its gona get ironed out, blablabla" -> those kind of comments make me just sick. If someone wants the console he'll buy it, but if you want to wait, you can still do so even if it's already out -_-