I'm happy that the refund chain will go all the way back to Sony. If a lot of people start requesting the refund now, it might suddenly be a good business decision for them to reenable otheros.

Agreed. In this case, a more "inflammatory" headline to this article might have conveyed the more interesting aspect of the story that you noted: "Amazon agrees PS3 no longer fit for purpose; will bill Sony for chargebacks" or something along those lines.

I'm amazed at how consistently tone-deaf Sony is. It seems like they go out of their way to piss off their own customers and shoot themselves in the foot in public relations.

Can anyone (who is a lawyer, please!) comment on whether a similar claim can be made in the US? (I'm really not interested in keyboard lawyering or your opinion on what the law should be.)

Is there a corresponding US law, at least CA might have something since it's a fairly consumer friendly state. It might be worthwhile, even for me since I own an original Fat PS3, to check with the state govt.

Anyone knows how to go about it, i.e. who/which office to ping in Sacramento?

Amazon's customer service is top-notch, but I'm not so sure that a local computer games / electronics store would act in the same way.

Which is part of the reason that it is great Amazon is doing this. They can afford the rebates and more importantly, they can afford to put pressure on Sony.

Wow, that's a big refund. I would have expected a token amount, like $25.