Steve Jobs's yacht impounded over unpaid Philippe Starck design bill

A yacht built for Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs has been impounded in Amsterdam because of a dispute over an unpaid bill to designer Philippe Starck, a lawyer said on Friday.

Jobs, who died last year, never got to use the yacht – called Venus – but had commissioned the French designer to work on the vessel, which cost more than €100m (£80m) to build.

A lawyer representing Starck's company, Ubik, told Reuters his client had received €6m out of a €9m commission for his work on the minimalist vessel and was seeking to recover the rest of what he was owed.

The yacht was impounded on Wednesday evening, the lawyer said, and will remain in the port of Amsterdam pending payment by lawyers representing Jobs's estate.

"The project has been going since 2007 and there had been a lot of detailed talk between Jobs and Starck," said Roelant Klaassen, a lawyer representing Ubik.

"These guys trusted each other, so there wasn't a very detailed contract."

The lawyer representing Jobs's estate could not immediately be reached for comment.