Hello guys, I really wanna get the Framework Laptop 16 when it releases but I live in Hong Kong. I just wanna ask if it’s ok (legally) for my uncle in America to get the laptop and then ship it to me in Hong Kong. Sorry, I’m just so confused about the U.S and China sanctions and I’m worried it might also affect me in Hong Kong.
Edit: My mistake! I didn’t realize this doesn’t constitute freight forwarding (see below). Nonetheless, sounds like a tricky situation and as I have no insight to share, I can only wish you the best of luck!
Using a friend or family member in a supported region to purchase a Framework is not freight forwarding because Framework defines Freight Forwarding as using a business to handle logistics, paperwork, import, etc. However, if you have to enter inaccurate billing to pay for it because you can’t select your country in the dropdowns during the checkout process, you are subject to order cancellation and payment blacklist for doing so.
Your designated person in a supported region, and their address, would be considered the owner of the device by Framework support. In addition to getting the device to you in the first place, they would need to handle reverse logistics if you needed to return a part (you would send the part to your designated person, who could then use Framework’s prepaid label to send it back to Framework), and they would need to receive any replacement parts and be responsible for getting them to you as well.
Generally, I would recommend against it because it is in kind of a grey area.
As @OperationCWAL already pointed out, framework does not support freight forwarding, as I just defined it, so we do not allow the discussion of it on any Framework community platform. If it does come up in this thread, it will be closed. Thank you.
Ah I see, Thank you for the insightful information. I will keep this in mind and now I’ll just wait until Framework is available in Hong Kong. Thank you all for helping me understand this.