Vivo Cannot Sell Its Phones In This European Market (Update)

Hadley Simmons/Android Authority

TL; Physician

After OnePlus and OPPO, Vivo also stopped selling on the German market due to a patent dispute with Nokia, a Finnish hardware supplier.
There are no products listed for sale on the German Vivo website. The company continues to provide after-sales service for the products already sold.
Vivo pointed us to an old statement about this.

Update: June 12, 2023 (3:30 PM ET): vivo has not yet issued a new response on the matter, instead directing us to a translated statement that was quietly released on May 30th.

The statement revealed that the company was unable to reach an agreement with Nokia to renew its cross-licensing agreement. The statement also confirms the cessation of sales and marketing of the product in Germany. vivo also confirms that customer service and software updates are unaffected by this story.

Original article: June 9, 2023 (8:44 am ET): Last year, OPPO and OnePlus were banned from selling their phones in Germany due to a patent dispute against them. Now vivo is following suit and is deleting its store page for Germany, leaving no room for consumers to buy vivo smartphones in the country going forward.

The text in the image above roughly translates to:

Unfortunately, Vivo products are currently not available in Germany. Therefore, no product information is available on our German website. When using vivo products, you can continue to count on our customer support. You will also receive future software updates.

vivo hasn't said specifically why the company is closing its stores or if the move is temporary or permanent. We have reached out to vivo for comment and will update the article once we receive feedback.

WinFuture reported that this release stems from a patent dispute with Nokia (a Finnish OEM, not HMD Global, which owns the Nokia smartphone brand). Nokia accused Vivo of infringing on patents related to Wi-Fi communication on its smartphones. A German court ruled in favor of Nokia and Vivo had to remove its products from the country. For the same reason, the promotion also affects OnePlus and OPPO.

OPPO and OnePlus are reportedly considering exiting some European and UK markets. However, OPPO has clarified that it will not leave the German market (or any other market), however, these activities in Germany have been halted due to demand. In April 2023, OPPO tried to negotiate with Nokia at the same time, with OPPO's German website still empty at the time of writing.