Though Japanese electronics manufacturer Sharp has made an announcement in response to an earlier report which said that it was discriminating against Chinese consumers by selling the same type of products at different prices, it has not been able to stop the many protests arising from the public in China.
On February 26, Chinese media reported that the Japanese company was cheating Chinese consumers with its discriminatory sale in China. The report cited a Chinese consumer who said that Sharp was selling a type of LCD TV in the Chinese mainland at a price up to RMB3000 higher than that the same type of product sold in Hong Kong and Japan. The consumer said that the company was providing fewer key components for the TV products sold in the mainland China than for those sold in Hong Kong and their home country. The Chinese consumer called Sharp's selling of the same type of product with different quality a discriminatory sale.
In response to the Chinese consumer's doubt and the mass media's concern, Sharp made an announcement on February 28 in which it attributed the difference in the parameters of the LCD TV sold in China and Japan to the difference of the broadcasting means in the two countries. Due to a difference in the broadcasting means in China, which uses PAL, and Japan, which uses NTSC, the components and design for the same type of LCD TVs sold in the two countries are different.
However, Sharp's announcement has not stopped the protests from Chinese consumers and media.
