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

Posted by msmash on from the not-in-my-house dept.

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.

2 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Nice bribe by Quakeulf · · Score: 1, Interesting

    If this lump sum of money isn't going to help the others in the tech industry it's just a bribe for them to keep doing what they're already doing.

  2. Patents? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Qualcomm will just file this under their expenses along with costs of labour, real estate, vendors and all other business expenses.

    Their market position they gained from this behaviour is worth far more than 1.2 billion in the long run.

    They should be forced to relinquish their patents in order to allow real competition to grow.