Qualcomm May Be Facing EU Antitrust Probe

Sources have leaked to Reuters that Qualcomm, the number one mobile chip-maker in the world, may face European antitrust investigations in relation to a four year old complaint by British cellphone chip-maker Icera. Icera was acquired by Nvidia in 2011.

“The Commission may open a case after the summer,” said the source, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The original details of the case were never made public, but the sources tell that Icera had accused Qualcomm of using patent-related incentives and exclusionary pricing of chipsets to discourage customers from doing business with them.

Not much has happened up until now, and it is pretty normal for the European courts. They take their sweet time to build the case and wait for the right time. Regulators now decided to fast-track the case after Europe’s second highest court in June upheld a record €1.1 billion EU fine against Intel for dominant market abuse. Companies can be fined as much as 10 percent of their global revenues for breaching EU antitrust rules.

This isn’t the first time Qualcomm is in the EU-courts spotlight. Back in 2010 a four-year probe into the company was scrapped after Swedish Ericsson and U.S. Texas Instruments withdrew their objections against the company.

Thank you Reuters for providing us with this information

Image courtesy of incept.