Akshita Shibu
Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM.O) was fined for $854 million by South Korea’s antitrust regulator over charges on unfair business practices, regarding patent licensing and modem chip sales.
It has also been criticised for abusing its superior position in the chip market.
According to Reuters reports, this fine which is considered as the largest ever levied in South Korea, marks the latest antitrust setback for Qualcomm’s most profitable business of licensing wireless patents to the mobile industry, at a time when the business is facing headwinds from a cooling smartphone market.
The Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) said that Qualcomm limited or refused access to vital wireless technology patents to rivals in Korea, hindering sales at companies such as Samsung. It also forced mobile phone makers into unfair agreements, that involved making handset-makers to purchase comprehensive wireless technology licences, even when they did not need or use them, BBC reported.
But Qualcomm rejected this alleged claim and said that it would challenge this decision of levying fine in Seoul’s high court and will also dispute the margin of the huge fine imposed on them by the South Korean regulator.
Shin Young-son, KFTC secretary-general said,”We investigated and decided on these actions because Qualcomm’s actions limit overall competition.” He also said that this ruling was not done in favour of the domestic companies but improving the overall market competition.
Qualcomm has also earlier faced inspection in other countries regarding its business practices, where it agreed to pay a fine of $75 million last year to China due to an antitrust probe and even the European Union has accused it for anticompetitive behaviour.
Qualcomm is an American multinational semiconductor and telecommunications equipment company that designs and markets wireless telecommunications products and services. The company headquarters is located in San Diego, California, United States and has 224 worldwide locations.
