iPhone in Belgium

The AP writes “Quirk in Belgian law drives iPhones near $1,000“. The article compares it to the AT&T locked in price of $299, which isn’t fair though. They should compare it to the unlocked price of about $550. Still a big difference, and 21% VAT doesn’t help either. The thing is, in Belgium it is not allowed to sell one service or device only linked to another service or device. Both services or devices need to be available separately. But the difference with other European countries, which offer similar consumer protection, is then that they can sell a device (at $1) linked to a service while also offering the device and service separately at full price. The full price of an unlocked 16GB iPhone in Australia would also be about $900 AUD.