“The US Federal Trade Commission on Friday defended its antitrust lawsuit from January, saying in a legal filing with the US District Court in San Jose, California, that the court shouldn’t dismiss its complaint against Qualcomm,” Shara Tibken reports for CNET. “The group has accused Qualcomm, the world’s biggest mobile chipmaker, of forcing Apple into an exclusive chip deal.”
“Qualcomm maintained a monopoly that extracted high royalty fees and weakened competition, the FTC said,” Tibken reports. “‘Qualcomm uses its monopoly power to make [handset manufacturers] pay a royalty overcharge — a tax — when buying modem chips from its competitors,’ the FTC said Friday. ‘Qualcomm further hampers those competitors by denying them the licenses it promised would be available on FRAND terms during standard- setting. And Qualcomm foreclosed its competitors from selling to a uniquely important customer, Apple, for half a decade using exclusive contracts.'”
“Apple in January filed suit against Qualcomm in the US, alleging the wireless chipmaker didn’t give fair licensing terms for its technology. Apple also said Qualcomm sought to punish it for cooperating in a South Korean investigation into Qualcomm’s licensing practices by withholding a $1 billion rebate. Last month, Apple said it had stopped paying royalties to contract manufacturers for phone patents owned by Qualcomm, starting with devices sold during the March quarter. That dealt a blow to Qualcomm’s financial results.,” Tibken reports. “Samsung, the world’s biggest handset maker, hasn’t filed any lawsuits against Qualcomm, but it did file an amicus brief in support of the FTC on Friday, saying the court shouldn’t dismiss the antitrust suit… Intel, one of Qualcomm’s main rivals in semiconductors, also filed an amicus brief on Friday.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The jig is up, Qualcomm.
As we’ve stated previously, Qualcomm’s FRAND abuse must not stand. Qualcomm’s licensing scam — charging a percentage of the total cost of all components in the phone, even non-Qualcomm components — is unreasonable, illogical, and irrational.
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