Best Buy to cease US sales of Huawei phones, report says

Best Buy, the largest US electronics retailer, is reportedly set to halt the sale of Huawei phones from its online and offline shelves, dealing a further blow to the handset maker after carrier AT&T pulled out of a deal to distribute its latest smartphone in the US earlier this year.

Best Buy has ceased ordering new smartphones from Huawei and will wind down its distribution of the company’s products over the next few weeks, according to a CNET report on Wednesday, citing an unnamed source familiar with the situation.

“Huawei values the relationship it has with Best Buy and all our other retail partners. As a policy, we do not discuss the details of our partner relationships,” Huawei said in a statement on Thursday.

Best Buy did not immediately respond to an email query.

Huawei Technologies, the world’s third biggest smartphone vendor, has struggled to gain access to the US smartphone market amid security concerns related to the company’s ties with the Chinese government.

Security concerns were widely reported to have prompted AT&T to walk away from a smartphone distribution deal with Huawei ahead of the Chinese firm’s launch of its flagship Mate 10 Pro handset at the CES trade show in Las Vegas in January. Later it was reported that Verizon Communications also abandoned plans to distribute Huawei smartphones in the US.