Qualcomm Inc. was fined 242 million euros ($272 million) by European Union antitrust regulators for deliberately pricing some chips so low they could eliminate a smaller rival.
The penalty comes a year after Qualcomm was ordered to pay 997 million euros for thwarting rival suppliers to Apple Inc. The EU said Thursday’s fine was 1.27% of Qualcomm’s revenue last year and “aimed at deterring market players” from trying the same thing.
Qualcomm said in a statement it will appeal and “expose the meritless nature of this decision.” It said it plans to provide a financial guarantee instead of paying the fine, until the courts have ruled.
Last year Qualcomm was handed the EU’s fifth-largest antitrust penalty over payments to Apple that the EU said were an illegal ploy to ensure only its chips were used in iPhones and iPads. San Diego-based Qualcomm is challenging the fine at the EU courts.
MacDailyNews Take: EU antitrust regulators could have fined Qualcomm up to 10% of Qualcomm’s revenue last year. They should have done so to send as strong a message as possible to would-be extortionists and predatory pricers like Qualcomm.
They made it too small, and the appeal should be immediately denied. Just sayin….
Wait a minute. Is the EU good or bad this week, MDN?
Thank goodness somewhere in the world there are competent principled government bodies that actively protect citizens’ rights and aren’t run by schoolyard bullies.
For MDN it’s simple:
The EU is full of Europeans, communists, profit grabbers and shyster politicians who should be forbidden their own laws and submit to US mega corps who invented everything ever produced throughout world history and should be grateful for the scraps thrown down from the big table. We are therefore bad,
Unless Qualcomm!
Simples.
Competent? The infractions took place between 2009 and 2011. The company that got squeezed out, no longer exists. The glacial pace is almost past remedying.