Sales stop for Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K and Smart TVs: Nokia enforces further sales ban

Nokia has spent a lot of time protecting its own patents over the past few years, which has already led to the temporary halt in sales of smartphones from manufacturers such as Oppo, OnePlus and Vivo. As early as October 2023, Nokia announced a legal dispute against Amazon, accusing the shopping giant of violating several patents relating, among other things, to the compression of videos, recommendation algorithms and hardware.

In mid-September, Bloomberg reported that the Munich Regional Court ruled that Nokia could stop the sale of certain Amazon products in Germany. The telecommunications group took its time with this, but now the time has come – the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max and Amazon’s own Smart TVs are no longer sold on Amazon Germany. The Fire TV Stick Lite and the Fire TV Cube (approx. 109 euros on Amazon) are still available. This sales stop has no impact on previously sold devices.

Spiegel has received statements from Amazon and Nokia. Amazon is apparently building on another legal dispute in Great Britain that is intended to determine how high the license fees that Nokia can charge for the affected patents. However, the negotiation is not planned until 2025, so it could be months before all Fire TV products are available again in Germany. Nokia denies that the license fees demanded are too high and emphasizes that litigation would always be a last resort, but Nokia’s extensive investments in research and development must be paid for.