Well in the euro zone, import will be a piece of cake. I suppose in the UK you will have to pay a small premium for the import if it is really no sold directly, but I doubt it.
I remember that for the N900 in france, it wasn't sold by any carriers, but I still got mine subsidized, just buying it from carephone warehouse.
As I am not planning in buying any subsidized phone anymore (it's just a hidden consumer loan, and as such is pretty expensive if you happen to have the cash). So I don't really care if it's sold by orange or O2 and I'll take it in france or UK as soon as web shop sells it.