Skip to main content

EU Antitrust Regulators Fine Qualcomm $1.2 Billion Over Apple Deal


The antitrust fine has hit Qualcomm badly.

The European Commission has levied a fine of €997 Million, approximately $1.2 Billion, against U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. for violating antitrust laws in a series of deals with Apple by "abusing its market dominance in LTE baseband chipsets."

According to the European Union (EU), Qualcomm paid Apple billions of dollars to make the iPhone-maker exclusively use its 4G chips in all its iPhones and iPads, reducing competition from other competing manufacturers in the LTE baseband chip industry like Intel

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE :


The European Commission launched an investigation in 2015, which revealed that Qualcomm abused its market dominance in LTE baseband chipsets and struck a deal with Apple in 2011, which meant the iPhone maker would have to repay Qualcomm if it decided to use a rival's chipsets until the end of 2016, hurting innovation in the chip sector.
"This meant that no rival could effectively challenge Qualcomm in this market, no matter how good their products were. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules and why we have taken today's decision," EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a press statement.
Apple received payments from Qualcomm for approximately 5 years between 2011 and 2016. The company still uses Qualcomm components in its iPhones and iPads, but it began using Intel LTE modems in its iPhone 7 and 7 Plus devices after the agreement ended.

The fine imposed on the chip maker is hefty, but won't hurt Qualcomm's bottom line significantly as it represents 4.9 percent of the company's turnover in 2017, according to the EU's antitrust commission.

Qualcomm said it 'strongly disagrees' with the European Commission's decision and will 'immediately appeal' it at the General Court of the European Union. The company also believes its agreement with Apple does not violate European Union competition law.
"We are confident this agreement did not violate EU competition rules or adversely affect market competition or European consumers," Qualcomm General Counsel Don Rosenberg said in a statement. "We have a strong case for judicial review, and we will immediately commence that process."
Not just one, Qualcomm is facing a patent fight with Apple over chip royalties, and simultaneously fending off a $100 billion hostile takeover from rival chipmaker Broadcom, but it rejected the bid last November, saying it 'dramatically undervalued' the company.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE :

Labels:
Location: India

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

iOS 11.3 coming this spring with battery and performance settings, ARKit 1.5, new Animoji

In a sign that Apple will continue to update iOS regularly instead of withholding features for its next major point-zero release, Apple on Wednesday revealed new features coming to an iOS 11.3 update this spring, including the ability to toggle the power management feature for iPhone models with aging batteries. Apple will implement new battery health information and the ability to customize power settings after it was revealed that the company  throttles CPU performance on older devices  where the battery is deteriorating. Apple's throttling is done to prevent random shutdowns of the device and ensure smooth operation, but some customers took offense to the fact that the slowdowns were occurring without transparency to the user. In a press release issued on Wednesday, Apple said that the iOS 11.3 update this fall will show battery health, and recommend to users if their battery needs to be serviced. The capabilities will be available for iPhone 6 and later. Users will...
Post a Comment
Read more

DJI Spark vs. Parrot Bebop 2 Which One Is The Best

It's a Parrot vs DJI drone showdown Earlier this year, DJI announced it would be taking on the entry-level, selfie drone market with its  Spark . Along with challengers like the  Yuneec Breeze , the smallest DJI quadcopter is priced within touching distance of the bigger  Parrot Bebop 2 . How do they compare? Weight The Bebop is significantly heavier than the Spark, but that extra weight is an advantage in some ways. More on that in a minute. Battery Parrot has slotted a big battery into the Bebop 2 – the original Bebop had an 1100 mAh unit, compared to the 2700 mAh pack in the latest Bebop 2. That translates to a healthy flight time, too. Flight Time Parrot has a massive advantage over DJI when it comes to flight time. The bigger battery in the Bebop affords it a healthy 25 minute flight time, compared to 16 minutes for the Spark. The heavier Parrot drone is also likely to stand up better to buffeting in high winds. Range Both d...
Post a Comment
Read more

How To Turn Off Facebook Face Recognition System On App And PC?

When it comes to privacy features, Facebook probably has gone where no company has gone before. It includes unchartered territories like asking people’s naked pictures to help victims of revenge porn. Now, Facebook has introduced another privacy feature that can tell whether someone has uploaded your photo to Facebook’s network. Although it was first announced in December last year, recently the company has reached out Facebook users through their News Feed, notifying them that the face recognition system is being used “for more features.” Analyzing people’s faces and storing them has its benefits. For instance, people can know if someone has uploaded their picture, regardless of whether they’re tagged in it or not. Also, Facebook could tell you whether a stranger is using your photo as their profile picture and help visually impaired users identify people in photographs. Facebook doesn’t store people’s images directly; it creates a blueprint or face...
Post a Comment
Read more