[Xixi]

Europe is a collection of countries, so your millage will vary a lot from country to country.

But yes for instance in France it's like that: permanent exclusivity is illegal, though short temporary ones are allowed. Orange (illegal) exclusivity on the iPhone was broken in April 2009 and since then all operators are selling it.

Consequence : 2 million iPhones sold in 2009, more than 50% of the smartphone market shares, and 3G networks that have a hard time following the pace...