E.U. Fines Qualcomm $1.2 Billion Over Apple Deal
In the latest decision, European regulators found that Qualcomm, the world’s largest maker of smartphone chips, abused its market dominance by preventing rivals from
competing in the smartphone chip market thanks to an agreement in which it paid Apple to exclusively use its chips in iPhones and iPads between 2011 and 2016.
“Qualcomm illegally shut out rivals from the market” for a particular kind of microchip,
Ms. Vestager said in a news release, “thereby cementing its market dominance.”
“Qualcomm paid billions of U. S. dollars to a key customer, Apple, so that it would not buy from rivals,” she added.
European antitrust officials hammered Qualcomm with a $1.2 billion fine on Wednesday, saying the American chip maker, whose technology
underpins much of the world’s mobile phone industry, had abused its dominant market position to squeeze out competitors.
“We are confident this agreement did not violate E. U.
competition rules or adversely affect market competition or European consumers,” Don Rosenberg, Qualcomm’s general counsel, said in a news release.
“These payments were not just reductions in price — they were made on the condition
that Apple would exclusively use Qualcomm’s baseband chipsets in all its iPhones and iPads.”
The European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, found
that Qualcomm’s practices had a significant, detrimental impact on competition in the region.