EU Regulators Reportedly Abandon $1B Fine Against Qualcomm
upstart writes:
Snapdragon giant was accused of bribing Apple not to use rival modems:
The European Commission has reportedly called it quits in its bid to fine Qualcomm for alleged anti-competitive payments to Apple.
Reuters reports antitrust regulators have signaled they will not appeal a June court ruling nixing a nearly $1 billion fine against the US system-on-chip designer, which was accused of breaking Europe's competition laws.
According to "people familiar with the matter," it appears regulators have determined it would be too difficult to convince Europe's top court to overturn the earlier decision to cancel the fine.
[...] The decision marks the European Commission's latest defeat. In January the EU's top court overturned a $1.2 billion fine leveled against Intel for similar alleged behavior. In that case, regulators accused the x86 titan of making payments to German electronics retailer Media Saturn Holding not to sell computers using competitors' components.
EU regulators now face paying Intel $623.5 million (593 million) in damages. In June, the chipmaker filed a complaint with the EU General Court seeking "payment of compensation and consequential interest for the damage sustained because of the European Commission's refusal to pay Intel default interest."
The commission's string of bad luck may not be over, either. Early next month, the EU General Court is expected to rule on Google's challenge to a 4.34 billion fine for using its Android operating system to push out competitors.
Are the EU regulators over-zealous or do they keep getting out-lawyered?
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