Qualcomm Looks to Europe Court to Overturn Over $250 Million Fine in EU Antitrust Case

The European Commission slapped the fine on Qualcomm in 2019 for selling its chipsets below cost between 2009 and 2011.

By Reuters | Updated: 13 March 2023 18:35 IST

Qualcomm Looks to Europe Court to Overturn Over $250 Million Fine in EU Antitrust Case

Photo Credit: Reuters

Qualcomm says 3G baseband chipsets singled out in the case account for 0.7 percent of the UMTS market

Highlights

Qualcomm convinced the same court to throw out another fine last year
The court will rule in the coming months
EU alleges that the chipmaker stymied British phone software maker Icera

US chipmaker Qualcomm returned to Europe's second-top court on Monday seeking to overturn a EUR 242 million ($258.4 million or roughly Rs. 2,125 crore) EU antitrust fine, a year after it convinced the same court to throw out a much bigger penalty in another antitrust case.

The European Commission slapped the fine on Qualcomm in 2019 for selling its chipsets below cost between 2009 and 2011, in a practice known as predatory pricing, to stymie British phone software maker Icera, now part of Nvidia.

The company last year secured a major win as it convinced the General Court to scrap a EUR 997 million (roughly Rs. 8,757 crore) EU antitrust fine in another case related to payments made to Apple to use only its chips in all its iPhone and iPad models in order to block out rivals such as Intel.

[Sponsored] Samsung Galaxy S24: The Ultimate Camera Phone With Smarter On-Device AI

Qualcomm lawyer Miguel Rato criticised the Commission's investigations against the company on the first day of the three-day hearing.

"This is the second instalment of the Commission's campaign against Qualcomm. The first was the exclusivity decision squashed by the Court," he told the General Court.

He said the 3G baseband chipsets singled out in the case accounted for just 0.7 percent of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) market and thus it was not possible for Qualcomm to shut out rivals from the chipset market.

EU Regulators Won't Appeal Court Ruling Against $1 Billion Qualcomm Fine

"What price should Qualcomm have charged for each chipset and each quarter to allow it to pass the price cost test?" Rato said.

Qualcomm's actions showed it was determined to eliminate a rival before it could pose a competitive threat, Commission lawyer Carlos Urraca Caviedes told the court.

"Icera was about to gain a solid foothold in the market segment which was strategically important for future growth. Qualcomm feared that if it did not take action, Icera would grow to expand and become a formidable rival," he said.

Qualcomm Records Major Win as EU May Not Appeal Court Ruling Against Fine

The court will rule in the coming months. The case is T-671/19 Qualcomm v Commission.

The iQoo Neo 7 packs a lot of power at an affordable price. But did the company cut the right corners to keep the price low? We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.