regional pricing is Activision's right, and I see no reason they should be obliged to honor keys that were sold in a manner that bypassed this right.
and I see no reason to screw the user because he's caught in the crossfire
that's not good consumer practice in my book but I guess they don't care with the volumes sold ...
Anyone who bought a "discount" download key for a brand new game from a shady looking site that is clearly not affiliated with the developer or any authorized distributors and got screwed does not have my sympathy.
define "shady looking site clearly not affiliated"
In this article nothing says the originating websites were shady or unaffiliated, on the contrary they were described as "import resellers" which means legal keys, rightfully bought from activision.
In the end, from my point of view they could do what microsoft is doing : legalize their purchase with an additional charge . and one should note that microsoft is doing that for 100% pirate copies, whereas activision is doing that to 100% legal keys which were just not sold at the "right" price.