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

  • MaaS to replace 2.3bn annual car journeys by 2023, says Juniper
    October 1, 2018
    Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platforms will replace over 2.3 billion urban private car journeys by 2023, according to new research. This compares with 17.6 million globally in 2018. According to the study from Juniper Research, western Europe will account for 83% of global MaaS trips in 2023. Mobility-as-a-Service: Emerging Opportunities, Vendor Strategies & Market Forecasts 2018-2023 says Helsinki, Finland, will lead MaaS implementation, followed by Stockholm, Sweden and Vienna, Austria.
    Read More
  • Zero-emission transport at centre of Democrat ‘Green New Deal’
    February 13, 2019
    Clean and affordable transportation and zero-emission vehicle infrastructure are at the heart of the US Democrats’ ‘Green New Deal’ package. The proposals seek to move the US away from fossil fuels and other sources of emissions that cause global warming within the next decade. The package says these goals can be reached by reached by a ten-year “national mobilisation” which include an overhaul in transportation systems to eliminate pollution and greenhouse as much as technologically feasible, repai
    Read More
  • Truck driver with foot on dashboard is among 4,000 drivers caught by unmarked HGV Cab
    November 7, 2017
    Highways England has released footage of a truck driver checking his phone while his right foot was on the dashboard. Spotted by Humberside Police, the driver was travelling from the M18 onto the M62 near Goole and is one of 4000 dangerous drivers on UK roads caught by a single unmarked HGV cab over a two year period. Another driver was pulled over by Devon and Cornwall Police and was found to have sent 10 replies to 10 texts within one hour and a driver in Surrey was seen trying to put toothpaste on a to
    Read More
  • British drivers face ban on hands-free mobiles
    August 14, 2019
    UK drivers could be banned from using phones in hands-free mode, following a suggestion from MPs. The House of Commons Transport Select Committee has said that current UK law creates the “misleading impression” that the use of hands-free phones is a safe driving practice. However, there is increasing evidence to show that hands-free usage “creates the same risks of collision as using a hand-held device,” say the law-makers. In its latest report, Road Safety: driving while using a mobile phone, the
    Read More

Highlighted Content