Court ruling against cell phone branding
by Ragnar Schierholz
According to multiple sources (e.g. Golem, Stiftung Warentest) the Amtsgericht Potsdam (county court of Potsdam) has ruled against T-Mobile Germany (case no. 34 C 563/04) and declared the common branding of cell phones into network operator editions as illegal.
May that be a sign of hope for all users who are sick of these branded, stripped-down functionality phones that come with the plan?
The customer had complained about a special button on his Siemens A60, initially designed to access new short messages (SMS) directly but reprogrammed by the network operator to access a service subject to charge. T-Mobiles legal department claimed that the phone was not malfunctioning but working properly, as designed in T-Mobiles branded version. A non-branded version of the phone would not be available from T-Mobile. The customer filed a law-suit, to which T-Mobile did not respond at all. Thus, the judge ruled a default-decree. Again T-Mobile didn't respond, thus the ruling is effecitve now. Apparently T-Mobile wanted to keep a low profile on the case.
The rule was justified by T-Mobiles marketing promise of a Siemens A60 phone but the delivery of a non-original phone. Thus, this rule could be applied to all branded phones which are still sold under their original product name, but not for phones which are sold under a new brand of the network operator (e.g. T-Mobiles MDA series).
Comments
"A non-branded version of the phone would not available from T-Mobile."
should either read:
"A non-branded version of the phone would not be available from T-Mobile."
or
"A non-branded version of the phone is/was not available from T-Mobile."
:-)
Ooops, corrected that.
>and declared the common branding of cell phones into network operator
>editions as illegal.
Wow, did we really read the same news-article? I came away with a totally different interpretation...
@Sencer: Well, the court has not yet published the rule online (at least I couldn't find it, but some articles said the ruling declared the branding as "unzulässig" which can be translated to illegal.
To put it clear:
The branding itself is not subject of the rule, but the distribution if the manipulated/branded phone under it's original product name with the original manuals etc. is. The customer was promised (in this case) a Siemens A60 phone and apparently received one (incl. the original Siemens manual). But the phone's software was altered to request a service subject to charge when a particular button was pushed. Siemens' manual and the on-screen manual said the button would open unread short messages (SMS). That was a misleading of the customer and is declared as "unzulässig".
In other words, if an MNO wants to offer branded phones (especially with less functionality), they have to offer them under a different name.
I'm wondering why you are linking to Golem instead of Heise online - Urteil gegen Handy-Branding. Are you going to diversify your media contacts? ;-)
Wups, I just recognized it was Ragnar, not Volker who wrote that article. Sorry for that ;-)
@Markus: I take that as a compliment ;-)
