Hewlett-Packard (HP) has issued a High Court writ against one of its resellers for an alleged £1.3m breach of contract.

The reseller, Future Network Systems Sales (FNS), went into administration last week with debts believed to be in the region of £3m to £4m.

Although HP declined to go into any detail for legal reasons, the vendor told CRN: "We are taking a UK reseller to court for breach of contract and there are other cases under review."

Stuart Mann, managing director of FNS, said: "There has been a myriad of things happening, and it has been a very stressful time. But I am working very closely with the administrators and suppliers to resolve the situation."

Nitin Joshi, partner at insolvency specialist PKF, said: "The FNS collapse is just another VAR casualty except the numbers are bigger. Much of this appears to relate to rebates.

"There has always been a huge debate about vendor rebates and the process leading up to claims by resellers.

"These processes will need to come under scrutiny, especially if the predicted upsurge in IT spends translates into reality."

sara_yirrell@vnu.co.uk