Qualcomm, the world’s no.1 chipmaker, could be hit with a second EU antitrust fine as soon as Thursday for blocking a rival from the market more than a decade ago, people familiar with the matter said.
The company came under fire in 2015 when the European Commission accused it of predatory pricing between 2009 and 2011 aimed at forcing out British phone software maker Icera, now part of Nvidia Corp.
The Commission says Qualcomm sold certain quantities of its UMTS baseband chipsets to two of its customers at below cost to shut Icera out of the market.
The Commission fined Qualcomm 997 million euros ($1.1 billion) last year for paying iPhone maker Apple to use only its chips, a tactic aimed at thwarting rivals including Intel.
MacDailyNews Take: The Commission can fine companies up to 10% of their global revenue and could do so as early as Thursday. Hopefully, they’ll hit the Qualcomm extortionists as hard as they can.
