Due to a licensing dispute with Nokia, OnePlus and Oppo have already withdrawn from Germany. Now another smartphone manufacturer has taken the consequences and stopped selling its devices in this country.
We are talking about the Chinese manufacturer Vivo, which, like OnePlus and Oppo, belongs to the BBK Electronics Group. All devices have already disappeared from its website. Instead, Vivo informs that the products are unfortunately not available in Germany and therefore no product information is available on the German site. But how did it come about?
License dispute forces Vivo to stop selling in Germany
The reason for the withdrawal from Germany is the license dispute with Nokia, which has been going on since last summer. Nokia accuses the BBK Electronics Group of using protected 4G and 5G licenses without paying for them. BBK Electronics includes several well-known smartphone manufacturers such as Oppo, Realme and OnePlus – but also Vivo. Thanks to this association of major brands, BBK Elecronics was the second largest smartphone manufacturer in the world in 2020.
But the German business must now be gradually abandoned. As early as July 2022, Nokia obtained a sales stop against OnePlus and Oppo before the Munich 1 Regional Court. As a result, there have been no new OnePlus smartphones in this country since last year. In May 2023, Oppo finally stopped selling and cleared its German website.
Now it hits the manufacturer Vivo, who also lost to Nokia in another process. The district court of Mannheim ruled in favor of the plaintiff on April 6th. According to the judgment (2O36/22) Vivo is said to violate a total of three licenses from Nokia, whose previous license agreement expired at the end of 2021. Smartphone sales via official channels have therefore been stopped for the time being.
Vivo’s smartphones are still occasionally available on Amazon – above all the current high-end model Vivo X90 Pro. However, it is questionable how long this will continue to be the case. It is conceivable that Nokia will obtain an injunction to stop sales via Amazon as well.
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Can Vivo reach agreement with Nokia?
However, Vivo does not want to give up the business in Germany just yet. According to the company, the company is ready for negotiations. Oppo had also tried for a long time to reach an agreement with Nokia in order to be able to continue selling its smartphones in this country. For a long time, people were therefore optimistic that they would be able to maintain business in Germany. But everything turned out differently in May: the website was cleared and inquiries were no longer answered via German partners, but forwarded to China.
In the case of Vivo, it is now similar. Here, too, the German page is already empty. Unlike Oppo, our contact persons are still available. On request, TECHBOOK learned from them that Vivo is still interested in an agreement with Nokia, but that the talks are difficult. “Over the last few years, Vivo has entered into cross-licensing agreements with numerous leading companies. We have negotiated with Nokia to renew their mutual licenses but have not yet been able to reach an agreement,” the company said in an official statement.
Vivo accuses Nokia of not having complied with the obligation to offer a license on “FRAND” terms (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory). Nokia, in turn, counters that it has taken all possible steps to reach an out-of-court settlement. Vivo has now appealed against the Mannheim verdict. “In the meantime, we remain in close contact with Nokia to finalize the license negotiations in accordance with FRAND terms,” Vivo told TECHBOOK.
What does the sales stop mean for customers?
The manufacturer continues to guarantee customers who already own a Vivo smartphone full support. On its website, Vivo writes that you can still rely on customer service and that users should also receive future software updates.
In its statement, the company also emphasizes that its long-term commitment to the German market will remain unchanged. “Users can count on customer service and future software updates for their devices. There is no impact on our business outside of Germany.”
Vivo only brought its latest flagship to Germany with the X90 Pro in March. The device offers features such as a Zeiss camera with a 1-inch sensor and a powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen2 chip.