European Commission hits Qualcomm with $1.2 billion antitrust fine
Qualcomm got another round of bad news this morning, this time from the European Commission. The EC has imposed a a997 million ($1.23 billion) fine on the mobile silicon designer for "abusing its market dominance in LTE baseband chipsets." The investigation stemmed from an exclusivity agreement between Apple and Qualcomm in which the iPhone maker received "billions of dollars" in payments in exchange for using Qualcomm's modems in iPhones and iPads. That agreement began in 2011, was extended in 2013, and began to wind down toward the end of 2016, when Apple began sourcing LTE modems from Intel, as well.
The European Commission believes this agreement prevented Intel (or other competitors) from challenging Qualcomm's dominant position in LTE modems during the period because of two incentives. Not only would Qualcomm stop paying Apple in the event that ...