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

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Bird establishes board to help increase safety for e-scooter riders
    August 14, 2018
    US electric mobility company Bird has formed a global safety advisory board to implement campaigns and products to improve the safety for riders using electric scooters. The board will also seek to improve the safety of pedestrians and cyclists who share space with riders using low-speed e-scooters. Additionally, Bird intends to carry on working with cities through its Save Our Sidewalks pledge to boost rider safety and improve the quality of bikes lanes. The scope of the work includes repainting an
    Read More
  • MTC approves e-tolling upgrade for Bay Area bridges
    September 23, 2019
    The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) intends to replace cash lanes with the electronic FasTrak tolling system at seven bridges in the San Francisco Bay Area. A report by Fox 2 KTVU says the MTC is hoping the $4 million upgrade will speed up traffic flow and save money on operations on the following bridges: Carquinez, Antioch, Benicia, Richmond-San Rafael, San Francisco-Oakland Bay, San Mateo and Dumbarton. For drivers without a FasTrak system, cameras will capture the number plates of their v
    Read More
  • Cost benefit: Wichita eases workzone congestion
    July 8, 2019
    Achieving higher diversion rates has helped one Kansas city to make traffic flow more efficient around workzones. David Crawford examines what’s behind a 10:1 benefit-to-cost ratio in Wichita Around 10% of highway congestion in the US results from delays in workzones, leading to an estimated annual loss of $700 million in fuel costs alone. The lack of accessible real-time traffic information to help motorists minimise their inconvenience – particularly at peak times - is a major contributor. One solut
    Read More
  • Stella Vie solar car shows way forward
    March 21, 2018
    The low-slung, curved roofline reminds you initially of a tortoise, but the latest solar-powered car from the Eindhoven University of Technology has a performance of which even the speediest tortoise can only dream. The ultra-streamlined Stella Vie car, built by students in 10 months from September 2016 for the World Solar Challenge, can get up to a highly-respectable 120km/h and travel up to 1000km on a sunny Dutch day. That comes from a lithium-ion battery that generates sufficient power for 600km, toppe
    Read More

Highlighted Content