The Carphone Warehouse (CPW) has been accused of setting up a web site in "bad faith" against rival no-frills cellco easyMobile.com.

CPW - which is behind discount mobilephoneco Fresh - registered the domain easiermobile.com as part of its response to the launch of easyMobile.com back in March.

But easyMobile.com - backed by no-frills airline entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou - complained to the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation) which arbitrates on commercial disputes involving intellectual property rights.

Now, WIPO has ordered CPW to hand-over the domain to easyMobile.

"WIPO has based its ruling on the fact that CPW has registered and used the domain in bad faith and that CPW did not have a legitimate interest in the domain name," said eayMobile.com in a statement.

The site features a picture of a jet plane painted green and decked out in Fresh livery - mimicking the distinctive orange of easyJet.

Having a dig at easyMobile.com the site says: "The Carphone Warehouse doesn't try to run airlines, it sells mobile phones."

Said easyMobile.com boss Frank Rasmussen: "We are very happy WIPO has ordered CPW to hand over the domain and that there will be one less thing to confuse British mobile users.

"Even though it's laughable the way CPW is going to extremes to defend their market share, it points to the more serious issue that British mobile users in both obvious and less obvious ways suffer from the many convoluted practices of many players in the market."

A spokeswoman for CPW declined to comment on the case. ®

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