Vodafone breaks iPhone exclusive deal

 

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Posted on 21 Nov 2007 at 08:26

Vodafone has won a German court injunction preventing Apple from handing T-Mobile exclusive rights to sell the iPhone.

A Hamburg court granted the injunction to rival Vodafone, which had hoped to win an exclusive pan-European deal to sell the iPhone but lost out to T-Mobile in Germany, O2 in the UK and Orange in France.

A T-Mobile spokesman declined to comment specifically on the company's options, but says the company will object to the injunction. It could also reconsider the conditions under which it sells the iPhone.

Customers in Germany pay 399 euros (£286 pounds) for the music-playing and Web-browsing device - half as much again as it costs in the US - and are obliged to agree to a two-year contract with T-Mobile, costing a minimum 1,176 euros.

T-Mobile is the only seller of the iPhone in Germany, where Apple has no stores. In the US and UK, the phone can be bought in Apple stores.

The head of Vodafone Germany told newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau the aim was not to stop T-Mobile from selling the iPhone but to examine whether the terms it had set were acceptable. German mobile phone operator Debitel has also lodged a complaint with Germany's telecoms regulator about T-Mobile's iPhone deal.

However, even if the German injunction is upheld, it's unlikely to have any legal ramifications for Apple's UK deal with O2. The regulatory framework in Germany is different to that of the UK.

However, it could heap more pressure on Apple to allow other UK operators to sell the handset.

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Author: Barry Collins and Reuters