The origin of this issue is the recent lawsuit from Nokia against both companies over royalties for the HEVC codec. Nokia managed to get a German court to issue an injunction against both makers, blocking them from "offering, placing on the market, using, or importing or possessing such devices in Germany." It's worth noting that Germany is the largest consumer computing market in Europe.
In a public statement , Asus said that "all after-sales services in Germany remain fully operational, and existing customers will continue to receive uninterrupted support in full compliance with the current court order," adding that it is "evaluating and pursuing further legal action to reach a fair resolution as soon as possible".
The fact that the websites are completely down runs counter to this statement. There's no telling if email support has also been taken offline, but you couldn't even find that to begin with. The fact that — at least for Asus — the blocking also affects German users visiting the U.S. website also seems excessive.
In a further response to this story, Acer issued Tom's Hardware with the following statement: "Acer respects the intellectual property of other companies and organizations. In accordance with a ruling by the Munich Regional Court between Nokia and Acer we were required to temporarily suspend our sales activities in Germany for the impacted products. At the same time, we are reviewing additional legal options in order to reach a fair solution as quickly as possible. As long as the litigation is ongoing, we cannot comment on further details. Numerous product categories such as monitors, routers, e‑scooters, and accessories are not impacted by the ruling and remain available."
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- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/acer-and-asus-shut-down-support-for-pc-and-laptops-in-wake-of-patent-dispute-ruling-drivers-and-updates-inaccessible-to-existing-customers-german-website-finds-a-workaround#main
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