So that’s how they do business over in Germany. Vodafone has issue a “restraining order” against T-Mobile for offering exclusive phones that other carriers cannot have.

Vodafone isn’t generally opposed to T-Mobile’s exclusivity contract with Apple, but wants to have these new sales practices examined, the spokesman said. The restraining order doesn’t aim at a total sales stop, he added.

Clearly these “new” sales practices — namely carrier exclusivity — don’t translate well into what appears to be Germany’s medieval “telephonic device anti-exclusivity laws” which were ratified in 1208 by King Enninetyfivus of Duberford. Seriously. Is this for real? Germans?

UPDATE – A German reader writes:

thats law. I think you call it (preliminary) injunction. its kind of what the EU does with Microsoft. If someone thinks sonething is not open for the whole market they stop it and get the court looking at it.
So, its fine the only T-Mobile is selling the IPhone. But its not ok that u can only use it with T-Mobile. The SIM Lock is the issue in this case.

Apparently all phones come unlocked in Germany. As far as I recall, this isn’t true in all of the EU countries. So maybe Vodafone does have a point, but not a very strong one.
Vodafone Gets Restraining Order On T-Mobile’s iPhone Sales [CNN]