OnePlus, Oppo Planning to Exit Some European Markets and the UK: Report

Oppo and OnePlus were embroiled in a patent dispute with Nokia and have already halted smartphone sales in Germany.

Written by Nithya P Nair, Edited by David Delima | Updated: 27 March 2023 18:44 IST

OnePlus, Oppo Planning to Exit Some European Markets and the UK: Report

High sales costs in European markets could be the primary reason for the withdrawal

Highlights

OnePlus and Oppo are owned by BBK Electronics
Oppo will reportedly retain minimal manpower in Germany and UK
They have a minor market share in Europe

OnePlus and Oppo are reportedly planning to exit the European market. The BBK Electronics-owned Chinese smartphone companies are preparing to withdraw their business from key markets of Europe including Germany, France, Netherlands, and the UK according to a report. Both companies halted sales of smartphones in Germany in August 2022 after losing a patent lawsuit with Nokia. The Finnish company accused the smartphone makers of using its patented 5G technology without paying for a license. However, OnePlus and Oppo have not officially confirmed their departure from Europe yet.

As per a 36kr.com report (in Chinese) citing people familiar with the matter, Oppo is set to exit Germany and the UK. High costs of sales in the region could be the primary reason for withdrawal. However, macroeconomic reasons including inflation, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, among others have forced Oppo to pull out its business from Europe as per the report. Both Germany and UK will reportedly retain minimal manpower for basic business operations. The report also states that Oppo's business in other regions including Italy, Finland, Spain, France and other countries is still advancing.

Tipster Max Jambor (@MaxJmb) tweeted that Oppo and OnePlus are pulling out of Europe, starting from Germany, France, Netherlands and the UK.

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At the time of publishing, OnePlus and Oppo had not officially confirmed their departure from Europe.

Meanwhile, Oppo India and OnePlus India shared this statement with Gadgets 360:

OPPO and OnePlus are committed to all the existing European markets and the UK. We had a great start in 2023 with the successful launches of several products in Europe and have a line-up of upcoming products for the rest of the year. As always, OPPO and OnePlus will continue to provide more innovative products and the best-in-class service for users moving forward.

Although Oppo and OnePlus are leading players in India's smartphone market, they have a minor market share in Europe. According to data from Counterpoint Research, Samsung, Apple and Xiaomi led Europe's smartphone space in Q3 last year. Oppo and OnePlus accounted just for four percent of the total European market in Q3 2022.

In August last year, OnePlus and Oppo halted sales of smartphones in Germany after losing a patent lawsuit with Nokia. Nokia has accused the BBK-electronics-owned brands of using its patented technology for processing 5G signals without paying for a license.

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The OnePlus 11 5G was launched at the company's Cloud 11 launch event which also saw the debut of several other devices. We discuss this new handset and all of OnePlus' new hardware on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Further reading: Oppo, OnePlus, Nokia

Nithya P Nair

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Nithya P Nair is a journalist with more than five years of experience in digital journalism. She specialises in business and technology beats. A foodie at heart, Nithya loves exploring new places (read cuisines) and sneaking in Malayalam movie dialogues to spice up conversations. More