Apple threatens unlocked iPhone sellers

Stephen Withers
Monday, 10 December 2007 02:06

Your IT - Mobility

Apple is putting legal pressure on companies that have been selling unlocked iPhones.

Supplies of unlocked iPhones in Singapore's famous Sim Lim Square electronics shopping centre have dried up following threats of legal action from Apple, The Straits Times reports.

An email sent to retailers warned they could be liable for $S1000 per iPhone sold.

The Straits Times reported that iPhones were no longer to be seen at the Sim Lim Square shops it visited, although one salesperson said the phone could be "brought in" on request.

In Europe, Danish site Politiken.dk reports reports mobile phone retailer Telekæden is being threatened with legal action by Apple's lawyer in Denmark.

Apple is reportedly demanding that the company stops selling unlocked iPhones, pay compensation to Apple for each phone it has already sold, and agree to never again sell Apple products without its express agreement.

"We do not think we have done anything wrong. We do not need consent from Nokia in order to be able to sell Nokia phones," Telekæden's sales director Klaus Engelbreth told Politiken.de. "And furthermore I'd have preferred that Apple had given us a ring and said they'd discuss the situation instead of rushing in this way with a policeman's badge and stick drawn."

If seems that Apple's position is that EU free trade rules do not permit parallel imports from countries outside Europe.

Currently, officially unlocked iPhones are only available in France, where national laws require that consumers are given the option of buying unlocked phones without contracts.

Apple might be asking for that 'cease and desist' agreement from Telekæden as a way of preventing it from obtaining supplies from France. Whether the Danish company would be able to achieve sufficient margin to make the exercise worthwhile is another question.