Qualcomm is forced to pay € 658 million for monopoly

Bad news for Qualcomm, the 'Taiwan Clean Trade Commission' (TFTC) fined it approximately $ 773 million (€ 658 million) for illegal practices in licensing and chip pricing.

Qualcomm allegedly engaged in illegal licensing and chip pricing

This is not the first fine to be received by the silicon giant, which has already had antitrust sanctions in South Korea (December 2016) and China (February 2015), a lawsuit by the US Federal Trade Commission . USA (January 2017) and investigation fines and possible breaches by the European Union.

The official TFTC statement states that Qualcomm withheld products and licenses to compel customers to agree to its terms, noting Qualcomm's numerous standard essential patents (SEPs) and monopoly status in the processor market for CDMA, WCDMA spaces. and LTE. The TFTC determined that these actions and others violated antitrust laws for at least seven years, during which Taiwanese companies paid Qualcomm around NT $ 400 billion, about $ 13.2 billion in license fees, and $ 30 billion in purchases of processors.

The American company will appeal the decision

These findings coincide with the charges of the US FTC. USA on this company's "no license, no chips" policy and its refusal to grant standard essential patent licenses.

Qualcomm issued its own statement disagreeing with this fine and stated its plans to appeal the decision. Since appealing against South Korean regulators, this is the second time that the silicon giant has resorted to these antitrust fines.

Source: anandtech