Sony awaits payment for lost memory cards

Distributor Cinram Logistics UK loses an appeal and is ordered to pay the full resale value of 17,000 lost memory cards

Distributor Cinram Logistics UK, which in 2004 lost 17,000 memory cards used in the Sony PlayStation 2, has been ordered to pay back the full sale price of the cards after losing an appeal.

A judge at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, ruled that the distributor should pay Sony and its Sony Computer Entertainment Europe division, the full £187,989 instead of the cost price of £56,246 it was angling for in its appeal.

The memory cards were destined for retail chain Game on 8 September 2004, but never reached their destination. Cinram had sent the stock from its warehouse in Aylesbury, Berkshire to Game’s warehouse in Basingstoke, Hampshire. But the memory cards disappeared en route.

According to a transcript of the judge’s statement the cards “were stolen by being diverted into the possession of fraudsters”. The judge also ruled that Sony had lost sales from Game as a result because the lost business was not replaced.