News 

While Sony has already said it would pay for the recall costs, Toshiba is looking for wider compensation, according to the news agency. A company spokesman has stated that Toshiba may also seek damages for the impact of the recall on its brand and sales.

Sony has explained that during manufacture tiny shards of metal were left in the battery cells, some of which caused a short-circuit leading to overheating. One partiuclar example, involving a Dell laptop catching fire, was widely viewed on YouTube and raised alarm over the issue.

The list of companies affected by Sony's global recall

ADVERTISEMENT

programme include IBM, Apple, Dell, Acer and Hitachi, as well as as Toshiba. Two companies that are not apparently affected are Sony itself - its VAIO subsidiary, specifically, and HP.

The decision of HP to seemingly go it alone, brought comment at the time - industry analysts claimed it could have disastrous consequences for the company if problems subsequently emerge.

'To date, HP has received no reports of overheating causing a battery failure in Sony 2.4 or 2.6Ah cells used in some battery packs manufactured for HP notebook PCs,' said a HP spokesperson. 'HP has worked closely with Sony, the manufacturer of the battery cells in question, and Sony has communicated that HP should not be impacted by the Apple or Dell replacement programs. HP believes it will not be impacted by the latest Lenovo or Sony recalls.'