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Mobile retailers in domain name duel

Graham Hayday CNet

Published: 18 Nov 2002 17:18 GMT

Mobile phone retail heavyweights Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U are involved in a spat over the ownership of a domain name.

Surfers who enter www.phones4you.co.uk into their browser instead of www.phones4u.co.uk will find themselves directed to what appears to be the Carphone Warehouse site.

According to today's Daily Telegraph, Phones 4U made the discovery on Friday and will be consulting its lawyers this week.

Anthony Catterson, managing director of Phones4U, is quoted as saying: "I'm very angry about this. We've invested about £20m in our brand over the last two years and I'm sure a court will find in our favour over breach of trademark."

He also described Carphone Warehouse as "bloody cheeky".

However, Carphone Warehouse has denied it had acquired the phones4you URL, claiming that it had itself only found out about the site on Friday.

One of the company's online affiliates, Fort William-based EcosseNet.com, is thought to have bought the domain without the company's knowledge. It receives a commission from Carphone Warehouse for every sale it generates for the retailer through the phones4you.co.uk website.

The affiliates programme is run by a company called TradeDoubler, which describes itself as "the leading provider of performance-based marketing and sales solutions in Europe and offers internet marketing services to everyone that wants to improve the effectiveness of their online business".

Carphone Warehouse is investigating the issue.

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