LG have lost the battle against Sony to seize Playstations across Europe. The court has ordered that all the current, about 300,000, seized consoles are to be returned to Sony and future shipments may come into Europe without breaking the law. LG will also have to pay €130,000 in court fees and €200,000 per day for every 24 hours, from tomorrow, the consoles are not returned to Sony.
Earlier on the Dutch police seized thousands of Playstation 3s at Sony"s largest European warehouse as LG won a court order meaning all consoles imported into Europe, including ones already in peoples homes, could be legally seized and may have possibly been destroyed. The International Trade Commission granted a further investigation but specifically excluded blocking imports to the United States.
Sony presently imports over 100,000 consoles every week and had been trying to get the injunction lifted for quite some time, however the battle is not over as the ongoing patent war between LG and Sony has not been resolved. If Sony does lose, they may have to compensate the Korean manufacturer for each console sold, potentially costing millions of Euros.