French watchdog cancels iPhone contract

France's competition authority on Wednesday cancelled with immediate effect Orange's exclusive contract to provide Apple's latest iPhone to French consumers. The Competition Council ruling is the first time an exclusive iPhone sales agreement has been struck down in Europe and is bound to raise the prospect of legal challenges in the other countries where Apple has exclusive deals: Germany, the UK and the US. However, the council said its decision was partly shaped by specific concerns about the French mobile market, which it believes is less competitive than others. These concerns led it to the conclusion that Orange's five-year monopoly on selling the iPhone 3G was, as one official put it, "way too long".