I-Phone / Competition Law

CantGetNoSleep

I see the Apple I-Phone is due to be launched here in the coming days

It will be available only on the o2 network, as is also the case in the UK. In fact in many countries it will only be released on one network.

Just wondering if I was Vodafone / Meteor / 3, are there any provisions of EC Competition Law that I could use here to force Apple to provide me with I-Phones and allow me to sell them in Ireland?

Is this agreement with o2 a horizontal restraint contrary to Article 81?

Maximilian

That doesn't apply. You can buy other phones. If the I-phone was the only phone on the market, then yes it would be anti-competitive.

CantGetNoSleep

But what about in perfume type cases, I think it involved Leclerc supermarket in France wanting to sell a particular brand of perfume? Surely there is more than one other type of perfume on the market

Doctor DooM

I think you are missing the point- you can get any phone sim free to work with any network. If you get a network susidised phone, it will be locked to work only with that network as the service provider is paying for a certain amount of the phone.

Spud83

This was already done in Germany. One of the networks contested the decision and they were for a short time aloud to sell unlocked iphones, the decision then got over turned and they had to stop selling them.

There are many phones out there that are exclusively sold by one network, you can then unlock them if you wish but I dont think the networks, or manufacturers are obliged to unlock them for you.

Maximilian

You might as well ask why aren't Nokia allowed to manufacture & sell I-phones.

The irony of this thread is, I think, that this is not really a matter of anti-competitive practice - this is competition itself. Apple/O2 bring out this desirable product, so what should happen next? Their competitors try and match them by selling another product. The fact that Apple have an exclusive retail partner is irrelevant.

Overheal

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

I see the Apple I-Phone is due to be launched here in the coming days

It will be available only on the o2 network, as is also the case in the UK. In fact in many countries it will only be released on one network.

Just wondering if I was Vodafone / Meteor / 3, are there any provisions of EC Competition Law that I could use here to force Apple to provide me with I-Phones and allow me to sell them in Ireland?

Is this agreement with o2 a horizontal restraint contrary to Article 81?

They've done this in the USA as well. there are ways to unlock the i-phone to work on any network, but apple has been making a point to attack these hacked phones with firmware updates.

But you might as well ask why a Toyota dealership isn't allowed to sell Honda vehicles.

Tom Young

I was going to comment in a similar vein to the above posters, then I read the Microsoft judgment again.

There are grounds (in my mind) for action on this matter, I am just not sure that the various jurisprudence in the Competition Law and indeed Commercial Law fields is up to the pace at which we are changing in respect to technology.

Then again, perhaps the price of carriage in respect of the phone and its wholesale upstream inputs/outputs may create a disincentive to carriage on the networks who have opted not to carry the I-Phone etc.

Tom

CantGetNoSleep

I think I am misunderstanding the agreement which allows this phone to be exclusive to o2.

Does this mean that Vodafone or Meteor cannot buy say 100,000 I-phones, repackage them and sell them as packaged deals?

Or does it just mean o2 are the only company given a decent discount on the phone by Apple?

Tom Young

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

I think I am misunderstanding the agreement which allows this phone to be exclusive to o2.

Does this mean that Vodafone or Meteor cannot buy say 100,000 I-phones, repackage them and sell them as packaged deals?

Or does it just mean o2 are the only company given a decent discount on the phone by Apple?

There would be nothing wrong in principle with that, re. Meteor and Voda doing that. Its a matter of time or technology upgrade I'd imagine.

Tom

Duffman

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

Is this agreement with o2 a horizontal restraint contrary to Article 81?

No, not at all.

First, this is a vertical arrangement rather than a horizontal one. Apple is a hardware manufacturer, O2 is the distributor and the network the phones connect to.

Second, competition authorities don't really care about vertical restrictions any more because there's lots of economic theory out there that suggests that this can actually be a good thing for the market.

Think about it. People who see the iPhone might want a smartphone will all those features. But its retail price coupled with a ridiculous voice and data plan is going to make lots of people consider the alternatives.

Intra-brand competition is restricted (ie. there's no price competition between networks selling iPhones because there's only one) but inter-brand competition is increased (ie. O2 v. all the networks who sell the N95, say.)

Duffman

Tom Young wrote: »

I was going to comment in a similar vein to the above posters, then I read the Microsoft judgment again.

There are grounds (in my mind) for action on this matter, I am just not sure that the various jurisprudence in the Competition Law and indeed Commercial Law fields is up to the pace at which we are changing in respect to technology.

Can you elaborate? I just don't see what Microsoft has to do with anything.

dermot_sheehan

Test is whether the "undertaking" i.e. apple, exercises "abuse" of "dominant market power", to establish this must first define the "market" which in europe is the SSNIP test, basically if there was a small but signifigant non transient change in price what proportion of consumers would buy other products/use othergeographical markets.

The iPhone is not unique enough to be considered its own market, therefore it is part of the mobile phone market. Since apple certainly doesnt exercise signifigant market power in mobile phones (having a tiny portion of the market), it can not abuse dominant market power.

Tom Young

Duffman wrote: »

Can you elaborate? I just don't see what Microsoft has to do with anything.

Sure, go read: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055152238&highlight=Microsoft

Sully

Tom Young wrote: »

Sure, go read: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055152238&highlight=Microsoft

That was one long "5" :P