Shopto.net

[B1gBeard]

Popped into Game today to part-ex the old AC on PS3 I bought from Shopto and the rascals told me that they couldn't take it as its not the official UK version.

On the back of the box it states that its not rated by the BBFC and should not be sold in the UK.

Have Shopto wronged me here or is this sort of thing just standard practise?

[C']

Common for Shopto I believe. They import their games from the EU which is why they are able to sell them cheaper.

[Malavon]

a lot of the games shopto post aren't uk copies, why i tend not to use them anymore

[Swallow]

The scammers!

[drmick]

Er, no.

Surely the UK high street is the scam?

[Swallow]

No, selling stuff in the UK without a BBFC certificate is the scam.

[B1gBeard]

Ok thanks guys. Not sure where I stand but have emailed them requesting they do something about it.

[elaniel]

Play.com have sent me a game like this. It's pretty common for a lot of online retailers to do this. It's cheaper for them.

It's like going into a Fish and Chip/Corner store and they're selling bottles of coca-cola from other countries, they're a bit more obvious as it's not in English.

Anyway, it's exactly the same game, all in English, but without a BBFC rating. I don't see a problem with it, we get great deals off of them, and the games work perfect. I'd rather pay 35 pound for a new game than 45 just to get a BBFC sticker and possibly trade it into game for much lower than I should even get for the game.

I do understand what you're saying though and where you're coming from if you're not aware of their practice.

[sofasurfer]

Ok thanks guys. Not sure where I stand but have emailed them requesting they do something about it.

Don't hold your breath. I did the same thing a few months back when i tried to trade in a game and didn't even get the courtesy of a reply.

If they mentioned it on their site it wouldn't be too bad but there you go.

I would rather pay a few quid extra for the ability to trade in if I wanted to.

[elaniel]

It does say on their site they sometimes source games from other areas to give us the best price. They do need to put a warning saying games may not be able to be traded in though.

EDIT:
Sorry it's their forum they state that they do that.
On their item descriptions it says PAL - UK and European Version. But it's not exactly clear, so I do think they need to make people aware more of this practice, not expect people to look in their forums.

I get a bit irked at the BBFC ratings anyway. I mean, the logo on Assassin's Creed was HUGE! It took up a lot of the case. As long as the game is completely in English and manual, box, everything is the same I'm happy.

I also get irked when I buy a movie from for instance Movietyme and it's got french text on it, or a game from VGP that has French on it as well (La Boite Orange anyone? I understand with VGP doing it, as they're in Canada and the main languages are French and English) If ShopTo started doing this, then I would probably go elsewhere for my EU 360 game purchases.

[sofasurfer]

It does say on their site they sometimes source games from other areas to give us the best price. They do need to put a warning saying games may not be able to be traded in though.

EDIT:
Sorry it's their forum they state that they do that.
On their item descriptions it says PAL - UK and European Version. But it's not exactly clear, so I do think they need to make people aware more of this practice, not expect people to look in their forums.

I know...sucks doesn't it.

If somebody was disgruntled with them they could inform the BBFC about it as they are a UK based company and not conforming to certification regulations.

Not that I would do that. Don't want my legs broken !

[elaniel]

I think there is a loophole that let's them do it though. They had soemthign on their forum why they were allowed to do it though.

[rumbletum]

I also get irked when I buy a movie from for instance Movietyme and it's got french text on it

[pedant]Movietyme don't ship movies with french text on the cover, its only canadian releases that suffer from this[/pedant]

[MattyD]

I think there is a loophole that let's them do it though. They had soemthign on their forum why they were allowed to do it though.

I think if the title has been rated by the BBFC it's still OK to sell copies of it. AFAIK the only time it's illegal in principle* to resell games / movies etc imported from abroad is if the title is unclassified or was refused classification (i.e. Manhunt 2) and/or if they break obscenity or other pr0n-related laws.

* Obviously they would need to pay the relevant taxes etc too

[Spatial]

I think there is a loophole that let's them do it though. They had soemthign on their forum why they were allowed to do it though.

Don't suppose you have / could find a link? I'd like to read what they said.

My understanding of it was that it was illegal to sell anything in the UK if it did not have the required ratings on it.

Thanks to Google

Under the Video Recordings Act 1984 it's an offence to supply an unclassified video work, possess for sale an unclassified video work for the purposes of supply, or supply or offer to supply a video recording not complying with the video recordings (labelling) regulations 1985

The video labelling regs are the ones that actually specify the U,PG, 18 etc rating labels.

There could be some sort of exemption though, otherwise the sale of any import without a BBFC rating would be illegal too and import shops would have been put out of business years ago

edit: Matty got in with a bit on an explanation above.