Over the weekend, reports of OPPO deleting products from its German website started doing the rounds. Indeed, there is no OPPO device listed on the company’s official website in Germany. Instead, the page displays a banner that reads (in machine translation): Some products are also not available in Germany, including the Reno 8 Series, Find N2 Flip.”
A unique FAQ listed on the website says that existing OPPO users can continue to use their products without restrictions and will receive all future updates.
OPPO had earlier announced that it was winding down its business in Germany due to looming legal issues and an ongoing patent dispute with Nokia. However, the company has insisted that it will not leave the German market for good.
We reached out to OPPO to ask if delisting the product from its website is also a temporary move until the company resolves its issues in the German market. Here’s a statement we received from an OPPO representative.
In response to a trade dispute filed by Nokia against OPPO, sales of some OPPO products have been temporarily suspended in Germany. In addition to the sales and marketing of the respective products, OPPO will continue to operate in Germany. As always, users can continue to use their OPPO products, access OPPO after-sales service, receive future OS updates, and more.
From the above statement, it seems that the suspension of product marketing through its website is part of the consequences facing OPPO in Germany. When the patent infringement case cost Nokia in the country, it was forced to stop selling not only OPPO-branded phones but also OnePlus phones in the country. Even now, OnePlus doesn’t sell phones through its German website, as the products are only available with headphones, accessories, and the OnePlus Pad.
While OPPO continues to deny its possible exit from major European markets, all signs point to the opposite. Last week, a report also suggested that OPPO and OnePlus are planning to wrap things up in France. The company also shuttered its chip design division responsible for its custom MariSilicon chips due to global economic headwinds. With all that said, OPPO’s future in the European region remains a wait-and-see game.