In all countries in Europe you can buy phones both locked and unlocked, except in those countries where selling locked phones is illegal. There you'll get only unlocked phones. In Belgium you'll get only unlocked phones. In Italy most phones are sold unlocked too. In Finland for no locked phones are sold except for 3G phones.
In all countries in Europe where locked phones are sold you can get a locked phone unlocked (sometimes for a fee, sometimes for free).
Most countries have laws to this effect on the books, that are similar to those of France. It's just France that gets a bad rap in this respect at the moment because Apple just happened to run in to these laws in France before running in to them anywhere else.
If Apple had tried to get it's phone to Finland first it would have run into a similar problem. But Apple would also have run in to other problems there, as Fins are used to higher spec'd phones than the current iPhone, so maybe that's why Apple went to those countries first where the mobile phone consumer is less sophisticated.
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In all countries in Europe where locked phones are sold you can get a locked phone unlocked (sometimes for a fee, sometimes for free).
Most countries have laws to this effect on the books, that are similar to those of France. It's just France that gets a bad rap in this respect at the moment because Apple just happened to run in to these laws in France before running in to them anywhere else.
If Apple had tried to get it's phone to Finland first it would have run into a similar problem. But Apple would also have run in to other problems there, as Fins are used to higher spec'd phones than the current iPhone, so maybe that's why Apple went to those countries first where the mobile phone consumer is less sophisticated.