HP agrees settlement with Maxicom PC

Assault on 'grey-market' sales channels continues

HP has reached a settlement with Maxicom PC in a case involving the unlawful grey-market sale of HP hardware.

HP had claimed that Maxicom had lied about the equipment being resold to specific customers in order to receive discounts on the hardware.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but HP had sought roughly $4m in damages when the case was filed in February.

"HP is committed to supporting our authorised business partners and protecting our mutual customers," said Adrian Jones, vice president and general manager of HP's solution partners organisation.

"We are committed to prosecuting those parties who use fraudulent means to obtain HP products for the purpose of selling them through unauthorised channels."

The case against Maxicom is part of a larger effort by HP to tackle unauthorised 'grey-market' sales channels.

The company has focused on prosecuting companies that resell equipment without permission, or attempt to bypass regional controls on the resale of equipment.

HP has also introduced a number of new procedural controls, such as serial number tracking, end user verification and guidelines for processing orders.