HP has won court backing to recover $2.3m in damages for breach of contract from Future Network Services. As FNS went bust late last year owing "three or four million pounds" - much of which revolved around rebates that HP wanted paying back - it's difficult to see how HP will collect much or most of these damages. Police are examining the circumstances of the FNS collapse, according to sources cited by Microscope, the UK channel news weekly.

Money or no money, HP has sent a strong message to other HP-accredited resellers that it will not tolerate unauthorised sourcing within EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). One scam is to buy grey kit and to then re-claim marketing rebates as if they had been bought from official vendor sources.

"This victory over FNS demonstrates our determination to weed out resellers who take margin away from legitimate partners,” said Andy Vickers, Director of Channel and SMB, HP UK. “We want to protect our authorised partners and the customers that buy from them." ®

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HP press release

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