Vodafone Germany Loses iPhone Lawsuit
4th Dec 07 – The German branch of the Vodafone cell phone network has lost its lawsuit over T-Mobile's exclusive deal to sell Apple's iPhone in Germany. Vodafone had been sueing to block the sale of the iPhone, claiming that the exclusive nature of the deal was against German competition laws, which allow users to move phones between carriers. But the judge disagreed and threw out the lawsuit.
The dismissal of this leaves T-Mobile free to keep selling the iPhone on an exclusive basis, and they announced on Tuesday that they would stop selling the €999 unlocked version of the phone. Instead, they will only be offering the locked version, which costs €349 Euros and only works with T-Mobile and requires a 24-month contract. However, they will be allowing users to unlock their iPhone at the end of the required 24-month contract for free, but they will no longer be offering an unlocked version of the iPhone. The French Orange network is continuing to
sell an unlocked version of the iPhone for €649.
