European Court Annuls $1.04 Billion Antitrust Fine for Qualcomm
15 Juni 2022 - 12:22PM
Dow Jones News
By Mauro Orru
A European court has scrapped a 997 million-euro ($1.04 billion)
antitrust fine that the European Union had given to Qualcomm Inc.
for payments it made to Apple Inc. for the device maker's exclusive
use of Qualcomm chips.
The Court of Justice of the European Union on Wednesday said the
European Commission, the EU's executive arm, had committed a number
of irregularities when it was putting together the case-file
against the San Diego-based company, a supplier of chips for
phones, cars and other devices.
"The General Court observes that a number of procedural
irregularities affected Qualcomm's rights of defence and invalidate
the Commission's analysis of the conduct alleged against Qualcomm,"
the court said in a statement.
EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager imposed the fine in early
2018, saying Qualcomm had abused its dominant position by paying
billions of dollars to Apple from 2011 to 2016 on the condition it
wouldn't buy from rivals, hindering competition in the market for
so-called baseband chips, which connect smartphones and tablets to
cellular networks. The illegal payments were made directly rather
than through discounts, the EU said.
Qualcomm said at the time it "strongly disagrees with the
decision" and would appeal to the EU's second-highest court.
Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com; @MauroOrru94
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 15, 2022 06:07 ET (10:07 GMT)
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