Important Notice: Lik-Sang.com Out of Business due to Multiple Sony Lawsuits
Tue Oct 24 2006 21:58:51 Hong Kong Time - Corporate Info

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - OUT OF BUSINESS NOTICE

Hong Kong, October 24th of 2006 - Lik-Sang.com, the popular gaming retailer from Hong Kong, has today announced that it is forced to close down due to multiple legal actions brought against it by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Sony claimed that Lik-Sang infringed its trade marks, copyright and registered design rights by selling Sony PSP consoles from Asia to European customers, and have recently obtained a judgment in the High Court of London (England) rendering Lik-Sang's sales of PSP consoles unlawful.

As of today, Lik-Sang.com will not be in the position to accept any new orders and will cancel and refund all existing orders that have already been placed. Furthermore, Lik-Sang is working closely with banks and PayPal to refund any store credits held by the company, and the customer support department is taking care of any open transactions such as pending RMAs or repairs and shipping related matters. The staff of Lik-Sang will make sure that nobody will get hurt in the crossfire of this ordeal.

A Sony spokesperson declined to comment directly on the lawsuit against Lik-Sang, but recently went on to tell Gamesindustry.biz 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; 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".

Lik Sang strongly disagrees with Sony's opinion that their customers need this kind of protection and pointed out that PSP consoles shipped from Lik-Sang contained genuine Sony 100V-240V AC Adapters that carry CE and other safety marks and are compatible world wide. All PSP consoles were in conformity with all EU and UK consumer safety regulations.

Furthermore, Sony have failed to disclose to the London High Court that not only the world wide gaming community in more than 100 countries relied on Lik-Sang for their gaming needs, but also Sony Europe's very own top directors repeatedly got their Sony PSP hard or software imports in nicely packed Lik-Sang parcels with free Lik-Sang Mugs or Lik-Sang Badge Holders, starting just two days after Japan's official release, as early as 14th of December 2004 (more than nine months earlier than the legal action). The list of PSP related Sony Europe orders reads like the who's who of the videogames industry, and includes Ray Maguire (Managing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Alan Duncan (UK Marketing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Chris Sorrell (Creative Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Rob Parkin (Development Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited), just to name a few.

"Today is Sony Europe victory about PSP, tomorrow is Sony Europe’s ongoing pressure about PlayStation 3. With this precedent set, next week could already be the stage for complaints from Sony America about the same thing, or from other console manufacturers about other consoles to other regions, or even from any publisher about any specific software title to any country they don’t see fit. It’s the beginning of the end... of the World as we know it", stated Pascal Clarysse, formerly known as the Marketing Manager of Lik-Sang.com.

"Blame it on Sony. That's the latest dark spot in their shameful track record as gaming industry leader. The Empire finally 'won', few dominating retailers from the UK probably will rejoice the news, but everybody else in the gaming world lost something today."

Source


---------------------

SONY ARE A BUNCH OF F**KING IDIOTS!!!!!

Who's next? Play-Asia?!

Although I've never bought anything from Lik Sang, this is ridiculous and it gets me quite angry. Bad form Sony.

Sony Europe can go f**k themselves! Seriously. This is terrible, terrible news. :(
The twats better not go after Play-Asia and/or NCSX next! :angry:

Horrible news indeed :( , I never actually ordered anything from them but nevertheless sucks for the importers.

I heard this in computers class today, my mate ordered a couple of games from the US through them and now they're shut down. It's kind of bullshit that Sony have done this, methinks this is just them trying to cover their own asses.

I'm an importer, and I've never understood the appeal of lik-sang, it's like shopping at EB, everything is way overpriced compared to other places.

It's a shame for the people that use (for whatever reason), but for me I couldn't care less.

Lik-sang may be overpriced on occasions but quite often you could get things you couldn't buy anywhere else (except dodgy ebay). Like when I wanted a white DS lite USB charger cable, I could only get it from Lik-sang. The only one Play-Asia had was in black (but I wanted white). So I paid the extra $ and imo I think it was worth it

And if that's your opinion about how you couldn't care less for Lik-Sang, I don't suppose you would care if Sony went to all the other importer stores and did the exact same thing huh? Because that's always a possibility. Just because it doesn't relate to you now, doesn't mean it won't later

Why go after a popular source of imported games? Lessening the availability of imported games from reputable sources will only encourage more people to pirate games. Sony's stupidity is now greater than their greed. :angry:

If Sony manage to successfully take down Play-Asia as well, I'll have no qualms in saying they have lost my business forever.

While this closure doesn't really affect me, it still does suck and is disappointing to hear about. More and more people are importing each and every day, be it because they want a game earlier, cheaper or because they want a game that either won't come here for a while or won't come here at all, so having one of the biggest importing sites be closed down like this is a real shame and if indeed Sony was the reason behind it, that's just crap.

As others have said above me, I really hope that sites like Play-Asia and the like are not targeted, if they are well then (other than perhaps eBay) you can kiss the import market goodbye and that's not a good thing at all. Yeah, I dunno what else to say really but damn does it suck.