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And in EU, it is technically not prohibited, but haven't really been a thing for a long time.

One caveat: carriers do not really pay for your phones. Your phone bill would list two separate charges: service charge, for calls, internet use, etc., and then the monthly payment for your phone. If you add all those monthly payments over the whole contract period you get maybe 5-10% discount to the regular market price.

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Yes but what is prohibited in Europe is to hide the cost of the phone in the payments of the cell plan. They must make clear exactly what part of your monthly payment is to pay off the phone and what part is the cell plan. That has basically blown up subsidised phones in Europe..

It seems that Croatian operators didn't get the memo about the discount.

Here the phones that you can get from your carrier and pay off on a monthly basis often end up costing more than in retail.

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