Never used the sight, but always used it for comparison. I was just on it today and noticed they no longer sell DVDs or Blu-rays. Does anyone know if this is a permanent thing? Maybe they could no longer compete with Amazon/Zavvi etc.
CD Wow No Longer Selling DVDs/Blu-Rays
stanas on 08/03/2011 - 19:01
Comments
The online store.
i believe they were caught selling illegal/pirated DVD's and thus can no longer sell them any more
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD_WOW!
About DVD
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/631408Long time article
http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?id=17…not pirated, got done for parallel importing
from your link…. (BPI = British Phonographic Industry)
On a wholesale basis, selling in the UK albums that were despatched from Hong Kong but that were licensed to be sold in the UK, contravened the relevant legislation and was a clear case of parallel importing. Whereas CD Wow!'s initial purchase of the CDs i.e. the bulk purchase, was legitimate, even though it happened outside of the EEA, when it resold that CD in the UK, it did so illegally.
CD Wow!'s argument was simplicity in itself. It was a Hong Kong based company. It purchased its products in Hong Kong and distributed from there. If, from Hong Kong, it sold a product to a customer in the UK, that sale was a personal import by that customer. That, it claimed, was not parallel importing.The implications
The BPI disagreed and sued and the court in May 2007 resoundingly came down in the BPI's favour.
Interestingly, the Consumer Association described the initial CD Wow! settlement as a "sad day for consumers and a sad day for e-commerce". It felt that the whole purpose of the Internet and Internet shopping would be circumvented, if customers in the UK were not allowed to use the Internet to buy goods from abroad.
it's a bit like jb hifi or similar suing ozgameshop.com for selling uk games over here I guess
The UK are hardcore about importing. When I lived there you would get slammed with taxes when you bought stuff from the US, even eBay stuff, and marked as gifts. I think it was anything over 30 pounds. This process worked though, it was thoroughly annoying, and there were fees on top of the taxes, so in the end you just buy from the UK or not at all.
On topic, I bought from CDWow once and it was not a seemingly legit copy, so I never bought there again.
Richard Branson has a criminal record for importing/exporting shenanigans. He paid off the authorities.
The above posts are on the right track… I don't know for sure, but I'm going to assume its because they were recently bought-out by an Australian mob by the name of Élan Media Partners Pty Ltd. As the business is now run by an Australian company, it cannot legally sell imported DVDs / Blu-rays to Australians… which is pretty much all they stocked.
They still list their movies on their other country websites … its just the Australian one they seem to have dropped them from.
Well as of April 6th they are still selling game DVDs at CD-WOW! Australia and posting them from Hong Kong. The one I got was obviously already used and the authentication key has been claimed already. How do I get my money back?
Ended up having to lodge a complaint with Pay Pal and got my refund.
which CDWOW is this
is it the online store or is it the 1wow