“France’s leading mobile operator Orange failed to restore its exclusive deal with Apple to sell the latest version of the blockbuster iPhone in France as the Paris Appeal Court confirmed a competition watchdog’s ruling,” Matt Gil reports for Reuters.

“The exclusivity deal between the U.S. group and Orange owner France Telecom over the latest generation 3G device was set to run for five years, although Apple had an exit clause after three years,” Gil reports. “On Dec. 17 the Competition Council suspended the deal, similar to ones struck by Apple in several markets, saying it risked ‘serious and immediate damage’ to competition on the French mobile market, due notably to its ‘excessive’ length.”

Gil reports, “France Telecom, which has argued the watchdog had ‘put the market economy into question,’ said in an email it was ‘surprised’ at the failure of its appeal and will lodge another appeal with France’s highest court, the Cour de Cassation.”

“France’s No. 3 operator Bouygues Telecom, which filed the original complaint with the Competition Council, welcomed the Appeal Court ruling and said it was in talks with Apple and expected to sell the iPhone itself ‘soon,’” Gil reports. “A spokesman for the second biggest player, SFR, owned by France’s Vivendi and Britain’s Vodafone Group (VOD.L), also welcomed the decision but said it needed a distribution contract with Apple to sell the device.”

Gil reports, “The Competition Council said that while it was not fundamentally opposed to exclusivity deals, future agreements on the iPhone would be capped at 3 months.”

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "JES42" for the heads up.]