A court victory in a British Court against Taiwanese import/export firm Lik-Sang for selling PSP systems in Europe has paved the way for Sony to prohibit imports of the PS3 system.
Sony, which launches its Playstation 3 console in North America and Japan in November, but not in Europe until 2007, has announced following the judgment that they will employ the “full scope of the law” in preventing imports into Europe of the system.
Commenting to the BBC a Sony Computer Entertainment Europe spokesperson said, “The law is clear, and grey importing PS2, PSP or PS3 into the EU, without the express permission of SCEE is illegal. Therefore, we will utilise the full scope of the law to put a stop to any retailers who chose to do this.”
Claiming that the decision of SCEE is designed to protect European users from hardware that does not conform to European standards, the action leaves gamers in the second largest market worldwide forced to wait until the designated 2007 launch date. The European delay comes as a result of stock shortages, and the company has already announced they may not be able to meet expected quantities for the November launch outside of Europe.
