No iPhone in Australia because Apple afraid of local competition laws?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 26 February 2008 09:25

Your IT - Mobility

Apple was forced to offer an ‘unlocked’ iPhone in France, and if an Australian law researcher is correct, the same situation could occur in Australia. Is this the reason why there’s been no Australian iPhone as yet?

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) law researcher Dale Clapperton has questioned whether Apple could release the iPhone in Australia under the same conditions that has seen it locked to a single carrier in the US, UK, Germany and France.

That said, an appeal was placed in Germany by Vodafone to force Deutsche Telekom to offer an unlocked version, but this was successfully challenged in court, while the French iPhone can be purchased in an unlocked configuration, but can reportedly only be used with SIM cards from other French companies – not any SIM from any carrier worldwide.

Steve Jobs was clearly annoyed at the developments in France as he did not attend the iPhone’s launch in that country, although he did personally launch the phone in the US, the UK and Germany.

Still, Clapperton believes any launch of the iPhone in Australia this year, if under the same conditions as overseas, “could be illegal under this country's competition laws”.

Clapperton noted Apple’s launch in June 2007 with an exclusive agreement with giant US telco AT&T to provide mobile coverage, saying that: “US iPhone buyers are required to sign a two-year mobile contract with AT&T before the iPhone will operate”.

He continued that: "Despite there being at least two class actions in the US against Apple alleging violations of antitrust and consumer protection laws, Apple has released the iPhone in Germany, France and the UK with exclusive agreements with mobile carriers."

However, Clapperton said that if Apple used this strategy in Australia it could come up against our third-line forcing laws which would make the strategy of forcing consumers to do business with another organisation illegal, specifically saying that: "Australia's competition laws may be uniquely suited to preventing this type of anti-competitive technological tying because they prohibit third-line forcing per se."

Where can you find more information on Clapperton’s position, and why else does he think an Australian locked iPhone could break local competition laws? Please read onto page 2.