Amazon stops selling all Fire TV Sticks 4K in Germany

Amazon is stopping sales of the Fire TV Stick 4K Max and Fire TV Stick 4K in Germany. Only the cheaper models Fire TV Stick and Fire TV Stick Lite with Full HD resolution are still available, as is the more expensive Fire TV Cube.

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Thanks to duty-free shipping within the EU, this isn’t a big problem for Germans: all Fire TV Sticks are still available in neighboring countries. If necessary, you can also order via Amazon.nl – they are cheaper there than from the many Ebay shops that take advantage of the situation. A VPN is not necessary for ordering.

The reason for the sales stop is a patent lawsuit by Nokia regarding the H.264 video codec and the newer H.265 alias HVEC. They compress videos and also save bandwidth when streaming. Amazon should use technology from patent EP2375749, but not pay. According to Amazon, sticks with H.265 support are now affected by the sales stop – the codec is deactivated on the 1080p sticks, which is why they are still available. Nokia has been taking action against device manufacturers and not against chip manufacturers like Mediatek for years. In 2020, Lenovo temporarily took notebooks, desktop PCs and tablets off the market following a Nokia patent lawsuit.

Allegedly unfair licensing conditions

The Munich regional court ruled in favor of Nokia against Amazon in the first instance. It is considered plaintiff-friendly in patent law. However, due to an appeal, the judgment is not yet final. Amazon’s and Lenovo’s arguments at the time: The licenses were far too expensive compared to the industry.

Amazon has minimally adapted a statement from September with a change in tense:

“We consider the decision of the Munich Regional Court to be wrong and are confident that the situation will be resolved soon. The ruling has no impact on existing customers and a wide range of Fire TV devices, including our exclusive Fire TV Stick, remain available on Amazon.de. We are always willing to pay a fair price for patent licenses and have worked with a number of companies to license video patents of this type. Industry standard offer declined. We regret that Nokia is taking these measures to limit customer choice.

Nokia has nevertheless decided to allow the judgment to be enforced provisionally. To do this, the company must provide security of an unknown amount. If Amazon is proven right in the second instance, the security deposited will go to the sales platform as compensation. Further decisions are expected by the end of the year, including in the USA, where a similar lawsuit is pending. Alternatively, both companies could reach an agreement out of court.

Nokia’s statement on the matter:

“On September 19, 2024, the Munich Regional Court ruled that Amazon was using video technologies patented by Nokia in its streaming devices (such as the Fire TV Stick) and selling them unlawfully and without a license. The court also found that Nokia’s negotiations with Amazon were based on a cease-and-desist order prohibiting the sale of Amazon’s streaming devices in Germany. Sales of these streaming devices in Germany will therefore be suspended from October 7th. Our goal is for Amazon’s customers to benefit from our extensive investments in research and development in the multimedia sector if the innovation ecosystem is not fairly compensated for the use of their technologies It will then become much more difficult for innovative companies to finance the development of the next generation of technology.

(mma)