iPhone Exclusivity Upheld By German Courts

Mobile phone network Vodafone has today lost its case against an exclusivity contract between Apple and rival T-Mobile over the new iPhone, as a German court today overturned a previous injunction that prevented the lucrative contract from operating.

The move today sees the court revoking its previous decision to prevent the agreement from standing, which it was thought could pave the way for the handset to be sold by any mobile phone network without contractual restrictions, which had been thought to jeopardise the stability of similar arrangements across the phone’s major trading territories.

Vodafone had taken objection to the deal struck with T-Mobile, which meant that only the latter could sell the iPhone in Germany, which was overturned by the court just two weeks ago prior to today’s contrary decision on the grounds of providing intermediate relief until the situation was resolved.

The Vodafone case relied on the presumption that customers should have freedom to choose with which network they would be linked through their iPhone model, and injunction was granted temporarily until the courts could hear the case today.

Whilst the move is a major blow for Vodafone, and all other fringe networks excluded from exclusivity around the world, it has been welcomed by anxious exclusive providers across Europe and the rest of the world having already agreed potentially worthless contracts of exclusivity for millions of dollars.

It follows moves from Apple to lock down phones that had opened up networks in contravention with the exclusivity agreements, causing all ‘unlocked’ phones to stop working. However after the agreement was upheld today, it looks as though this kind of practice will be allowed to continue for the duration of the exclusivity contracts across the world.

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