Qualcomm violated antitrust laws, says US district judge

Qualcomm has been accused of supressing competition from smartphone chip rivals by threatening to cut off supplies and extract licensing fees. US District Judge Lucy Koh has ordered the company to renegotiate licensing agreements at reasonable prices. Qualcomm, a key player in the ITS industry - particularly in the nascent area of 5G technology - refutes the ruling. “We strongly disagree with the judge’s conclusions, her interpretation of the facts and her application of the law,” said Don Rosenberg
May 23, 2019 Read time: 2 mins
213 Qualcomm has been accused of supressing competition from smartphone chip rivals by threatening to cut off supplies and extract licensing fees.


US District Judge Lucy Koh has ordered the company to renegotiate licensing agreements at reasonable prices.

Qualcomm, a key player in the ITS industry - particularly in the nascent area of 5G technology - refutes the ruling. “We strongly disagree with the judge’s conclusions, her interpretation of the facts and her application of the law,” said Don Rosenberg, the telecoms firm’s general counsel.

It plans to ask Koh to delay her decision while also seeking to appeal to the federal appeals court in California.

The ruling serves as a win for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) which filed a %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external complaint false https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2017/01/ftc-charges-qualcomm-monopolizing-key-semiconductor-device-used false false%> in a federal district court in 2017, saying that Qualcomm used anticompetitive tactics to maintain its monopoly in the supply of a semiconductor device used in mobile phones.

The FTC alleged that Qualcomm used its position as a supplier of certain baseband processors to impose anticompetitive supply and licensing terms on mobile phone manufacturers and to weaken its rivals.

FTC said that Qualcomm maintained a ‘no licence, no chip’ policy where it will supply its baseband processors on the condition that mobile phone manufacturers agree to its preferred licence terms. Additionally, the company refused to licence standard-essential patents to competing suppliers of baseband processors and used exclusivity to prevent Apple from working with and improving the effectiveness of Qualcomm competitors.

In 2017, Qualcomm announced a chipset based on the Release 14 cellular Vehicle to Everything specifications.

Maged Zaki, director, technology and product marketing, told ITS International: “This is 4G LTE-based – not, as some assume, 5G but it does provide a strong evolutionary route to 5G. And we’re not attempting to corner the market – since our announcement at least four other companies have produced or signalled their intention to produce chipsets.”

Enforcement

Related Content

  • February 14, 2019
    Ride-hailing and taxi drivers could face tougher criminal checks in England
    Drivers who ply their trade on apps such as Uber could be under greater scrutiny as part of proposals being put forward by the UK government. The potential risk to passengers from the explosion of ride-hailing apps, as private-hire drivers are perceived to receive less thorough vetting – for example, to flag up past convictions – has long been argued. Incidents such as the murders of passengers by a Didi driver in China heightened such concerns - although critics point out that a US Uber driver who ad
    Read More
  • September 25, 2019
    Uber granted London licence for just two months
    Transport for London (TfL) has issued Uber London with just a two-month private hire operator licence. The ride-hailing company’s previous 15-month licence – awarded by a court on appeal after TfL originally decided not to grant one - expires tonight (25 September). Two years ago, TfL declared that Uber was not ‘fit and proper’ to hold a licence – before the court intervened. At the time, Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi admitted the company was ‘far from perfect’. TfL now says it will be req
    Read More
  • April 24, 2019
    Worries as Huawei given role in UK’s 5G network
    Alarm has been expressed by MPs over the UK government’s decision to allow Chinese firm Huawei to work on the UK’s 5G network. Prime minister Theresa May has banned Huawei from supplying ‘core’ parts of the country’s 5G infrastructure – but is believed to have given the green light for it to help deliver what are being called ‘non-core’ parts. As well as being for mobile phones, 5G is the technology which will be used to improve connectivity of autonomous vehicles and traffic controls. However, there ar
    Read More
  • March 8, 2019
    Transdev and Ericsson team up on AV cybersecurity project in France
    Transport operator Transdev and telecoms firm Ericsson have teamed up in France on an autonomous vehicle (AV) cybersecurity project. The companies have deployed high-speed private network LTE data communications to demonstrate secure mobility operations with AVs. The Rouen Normandy Autonomous Lab (RNAL) project is an on-demand shared and autonomous mobility service operating on open roads with four Renault ZOEs and, soon, with an i- Cristal Transdev Lohr shuttle. Franck Bouetard, head of Ericsson Franc
    Read More

Highlighted Content