EU Fines Qualcomm $1.2 Billion for Paying Apple To Use Its Microchips (apnews.com)

The European Union on Wednesday slapped a $1.23 billion fine on U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm for abusing its market dominance in the lucrative sector of components in smartphones and tablets for half a decade. From a report: EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that San Diego-based Qualcomm "illegally shut out rivals from the market" for more than five years by paying key customer Apple to not use chips made by Qualcomm's rivals. Vestager said Qualcomm paid "billions of dollars" to Apple and in the process helped establish itself as the dominant force.

Comments

Apple is complicit here

[JoeyRox]

It was in Qualcomm's interest to pay Apple billions because it obviously served to discourage the development of a competing designs by Qualcomm's competitors.

But it also served Apple's interests because getting such good terms meant they would get a parts-cost advantage vs all their smartphone competitors while at the same time assuring those competitors would not have a lower-cost alternative available to them from a Qualcomm competitor.

Monopolistic synergy.