Starbucks’s being sued – by T-Mobile over what the mobile phone says is a blatant disregard of an exclusive agreement.

Reuters reported the big hissy fit that puts the well-known coffee chain between two telecommunications providers. See, T-Mobile signed said agreement with Starbucks. And what does Starbucks do? Bargain with the enemy; in this case, AT&T. AT&T’s deal to offer free WiFi at Starbucks outlets clearly left a very disgruntled T-Mobile out in the cold.

T-Mobile alleges that AT&T and Starbucks Corp reneged on an agreement on how Starbucks would transfer from T-Mobile to AT&T, citing breach of contract and unfair competition.

An earlier agreement gave T-Mobile the exclusive right to “sell, market and promote its services” in Starbucks stores until the transition was made to the AT&T system. Stores would be converted “on a market-to-market basis”, and until a market was converted, T-Mobile would retain the exclusivity.

“T-Mobile had made a very significant investment in the technology and equipment necessary to provide Wi-Fi service in the many thousands of Starbucks stores in the United States,” the lawsuit said. So when Starbucks rolled out the AT&T free WiFi to its outlets, T-Mobile saw it as AT&T benefiting at T-Mobile’s expense.

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Entry was posted on Saturday, June 7th, 2008 at 1:43 pm under Internet, Legal, Wi-Fi.

Read more entries by Erna Mahyuni.
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