The Munich Regional Court has ordered Asus and Acer to stop directly selling their PCs in Germany, which is described as Europe’s largest economy. The judgment was handed down on January 22, 2026, and has already prompted both companies to suspend or remove affected product listings from their German online stores while they evaluate legal options and determine the full scope of the ruling. The cease and desist order marks a significant disruption to their direct distribution in a key European market.
The court decision focuses specifically on the manufacturers’ own sales and distribution channels rather than on independent retailers. The court’s order targets the manufacturers’ direct channels, rather than retailers selling existing stock, effectively leaving the German market to rely on remaining inventory from Asus and Acer and on other original equipment manufacturers. This distinction means third party retailers can continue to sell already stocked devices for now, while new direct shipments from Asus and Acer into their own German online storefronts are constrained.
The core of the dispute centers on patent claims asserted by Nokia that cover core HEVC/H.265 video encoding and decoding techniques. As Asus and Acer use GPUs, processors, and other digital encoding and decoding engines that rely on these technologies, the use has to be licensed and the sales can only proceed with approval from Nokia. The judges concluded that the two manufacturers had not demonstrated the conduct of willing licensees under FRAND rules, which allowed the court to grant injunctive relief instead of limiting the remedy to damages. The duration of the ban has not been disclosed, and clarification on how long the restrictions will remain in force will require further information from the court and the two companies.
