Amazon has confirmed German customers will not lose Prime services after court ruling.
Following a licensing dispute with Nokia, the regional court in Dusseldorf has ruled Amazon can no longer continue streaming in “its current technical form”. The company has been warned it will face fines of €250,000 for each violation.
In a statement emailed to Reuters, Amazon said, “Prime Video will comply with this local judgement and is currently considering next steps.”
The company said the ruling concerned “limited functionality of the service” and did not affect its ability to provide services to its customers in Germany, who face “absolutely no risk” of losing access to Prime Video.
In September, a regional court in Munich gave a similar ruling in which it stated that Amazon’s Fire devices infringed Nokia’s patent. At the time, Amazon stated, “Nokia is demanding more than all those companies combined and has rejected our offer, which was fair and in line with market rates,”
After the latest decision, Arvin Patel, Nokia’s chief licensing officer in charge of new segments, said, “The innovation ecosystem breaks down if patent holders are not fairly compensated for the use of their technologies, as it becomes much harder for innovators to fund the development of next generation technologies.”
