What actual law did they break? Nothing I've read said it was illegal. They didn't truly tamper with the actual product. Not only that but there is a PENDING recall that's being looked at so they will probably re-release with additional content or something to make up for the voucher that was removed. Don't count Gamestop out until after the fact.
"As part of Deus Ex: Human Revolution's boxed offering on PC, Square Enix included a third party coupon. GameStop was not made aware of this inclusion and Square Enix respects the right of GameStop to have final say over the contents of products it sells and to adjust them where they see fit in accordance with their policies." -Latest comment from Square Enix.
[Edited by fire_foxxx, 8/25/2011 12:42:06 AM]
Opening a new product and tampering it is called fraud. not to mention it violates numerous trade rules.
Edit: I wouldn't be surprised if there's a class action suit because of this.
[Edited by bryanskrantz, 8/25/2011 6:32:19 AM]
Edit 2: to add further insult to injury, arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/08/gamestop-responds-to-deus-ex-controversy-removes-game-from-shelves.ars
[Edited by bryanskrantz, 8/25/2011 7:53:50 AM]
What they did is illegal.
Any business has no right to open any sealed packaging for software no matter the content.
It is not up to Gamestop etc to decide what Square should include in the packaging, its a retail box and it comes as is.
If Gamestop wasn't happy they had 2 choices, sell as is or don't. Because its an anticipated title they had to try to sell, nobody would expect to wait a couple of days waiting for a new batch to arrive.
Gamespot should have done what Onlive did, to ensure that a cd-key for the online service was included for Impulse. They didn't want to pay the money for that and Onlive did. Tough.
But opening and removing it and then selling a now incomplete product as new is very much illegal no matter what country you come from. That has easily broken numerous laws. And I hope they get hit heavily by the official bodies responsible in the US for trading and consumer rights.
Because Gamespot sells a whole lot of games.
SNARF SNARF