Yesterday Lik-Sang.com, a popular Hong Kong gaming retailer, announced that it was forced to close its doors. The reason? Lik-Sang claimed this closure was brought about by multiple legal actions brought against it by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. As reported earlier on EL33TONLINE, Sony claimed that Lik-Sang had infringed its trademarks, copyrights and design rights by selling Sony PSP consoles to European customers from Asia. Sony took the matter to the High Court of London and won the case, obtaining a judgment against Lik-Sang which rendered the sales of PSP consoles by Lik-Sang unlawful.

Yesterday Lik-Sang announced it would not accepting new orders and that it would cancel and refund existing orders. They went on to state that “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.”

Sony claims to be protecting it’s consumers

Although declining to comment directly on the Lik-Sang lawsuit, a Sony spokesperson said “ultimately, we’re trying to protect our consumers from being sold hardware that does not conform to strict EU or UK consumer safety standards, due to voltage supply differences.” Lik-Sang has contended this statement by pointing out that PSP consoles supplied by Lik-Sang contained genuine Sony 100V-240V AC Adapters, which are compatible worldwide and carry CE safety marks, thereby being in conformity with EU and UK consumer safety regulations.

Lik-Sang went on to say that Sony did not disclose to the court that the world wide gaming community, in well over 100 countries, relied on Lik-Sang for their gaming needs. In addition they claimed that Sony Europe’s top directors had obtained their PSP hard- or software imports from Lik-Sang just days after the release in Japan.

Lik-Sang has it’s say

Former Marketing Manager of Lik-Sang, Pascal Clarysse, stated “today is Sony Europe’s 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.” He went on to say, “blame it on Sony. That’s the latest dark spot on 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.” Before Lik-Sang announced it’s closure, Clarysse had alleged that “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.”

Sony denies responsibility

Sony denied responsibility for Lik-Sang’s closure and argued the statement issued by them was a case of ‘sour grapes.’ Their strong response to Lik-Sang’s statement went like this, “Sony Computer Entertainment successfully sued Pacific Game Technology (Holding) Limited (one of who’s company trading names is Lik-Sang.com) for infringing our Intellectutal Property Rights. Lik-Sang did not contest this case (ie. they did not turn up and therefore incurred no legal costs). We have been awarded substantial costs against Lik-Sang which have not been paid. We would therefore strongly deny that our actions have had anything to do with this website closing (we assume the legal entity is still trading) and would suggest that this release is sour grapes on behalf of Lik-Sang which is aimed to belittle Sony Computer Entertainment and the British judicial system that ruled against them.”

Sony said it would investigate Lik-Sang’s allegations about the purchasing of PSP consoles by Sony executives, but expressed surprise “at a company releasing personal information about its consumers, as this is contrary to data protection principles around the world.”

With the battle lines firmly drawn, it remains to be seen who will win in the consumers eyes.