The German online store of the Chinese consumer electronics maker, Vivo has been shut down. Vivo customers in the country won’t be able to buy any more Vivo smartphones.
Here’s more about it.
Vivo Shuts Down its German Online Stores
Following the lawsuit from Nokia, leading Chinese smartphone makers including OPPO, OnePlus, and Vivo have been facing a lot of issues in the German market. Even though reports had revealed OPPO’s and OnePlus’ plans to take the necessary steps to resolve the issues with Nokia, the companies weren’t successful in their attempts and they had to close their German online stores. Now the same fate has fallen upon Vivo as well, as the company shuts down its smartphone sales in Germany.
Chinese smartphone makers, OPPO, OnePlus, and Vivo faced a lawsuit from Nokia due to the infringement of two Nokia Standard Essentials Patents(SEPs) without proper licensing and thereby OPPO and OnePlus had to shut down their sales. Spenser Blank, OnePlus’ director of communications stated that they are just holding the marketing and sales of its smartphones in the country until issues become resolved, however, things have already started to take a turn as followed by OPPO and OnePlus, Vivo is also forced to halt or stop its sales in the country.
Nokia has been very reluctant in offering a license upon mutual agreement on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory(FRAND) terms, which is the reason behind the company’s leaving the German markets.
OPPO’s official German website doesn’t display any of its smartphone devices while OnePlus had it listed with no buy button and only its audio devices were available for purchase. Vivo’s official German website now just displays the note that Vivo products are not available at the moment without listing any of its products. For existing smartphone users of the brands, OPPO, OnePlus, and Vivo haven’t entirely left them as the companies will still be offering their smartphone users the proper software updates and after-sales services as a commitment to their customers.
