TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      State capture probe ends but South Africa remains ‘broken’ by corruption

      23 June 2022

      Vivica Group, formerly Vox, looks beyond ICT

      23 June 2022

      Protests break out at Eskom plants

      23 June 2022

      South Africa scraps public mask mandate

      23 June 2022

      Crypto is not too big to fail

      23 June 2022
    • World

      Crypto crash survivors could become ‘tomorrow’s Amazons’

      23 June 2022

      Tether to launch a stablecoin tied to the British pound

      22 June 2022

      Tech giants form metaverse standards body, without Apple

      22 June 2022

      There are still unresolved matters in Twitter deal, Musk says

      21 June 2022

      5G subscriptions to top one billion in 2022: Ericsson

      21 June 2022
    • In-depth

      The great crypto crash: the fallout, and what happens next

      22 June 2022

      Goodbye, Internet Explorer – you really won’t be missed

      19 June 2022

      Oracle’s database dominance threatened by rise of cloud-first rivals

      13 June 2022

      Everything Apple announced at WWDC – in less than 500 words

      7 June 2022

      Sheryl Sandberg’s ad empire leaves a complicated legacy

      2 June 2022
    • Podcasts

      How your organisation can triage its information security risk

      22 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E06 – ‘Apple Silicon’

      15 June 2022

      The youth might just save us

      15 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E05 – ‘Nvidia: The Green Goblin’

      8 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E04 – ‘The story of Intel – part 2’

      1 June 2022
    • Opinion

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022

      Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

      13 June 2022

      A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

      19 May 2022

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022

      How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

      8 April 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»News»Qualcomm fined €1bn over Apple chip payments

    Qualcomm fined €1bn over Apple chip payments

    News By Agency Staff24 January 2018
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Margrethe Vestager

    Qualcomm has been fined €997m by the European Union for paying Apple to shun rival chips in its iPhones.

    The largest maker of chips that help run smartphones “paid billions of US dollars to a key customer, Apple, so that it would not buy from rivals”, EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in an e-mailed statement on Wednesday. “This meant that no rival could effectively challenge Qualcomm in this market, no matter how good their products were.”

    Qualcomm struck a deal with Apple in 2011 that pledged significant payments if Apple only used Qualcomm chipsets for the iPhone and iPad devices. That agreement was renewed in 2013 until 2016. Qualcomm warned it would stop these payments if Apple sold another product with a rival chip. This effectively shut out competitors such as Intel from the market for LTE baseband chipsets used in the 4G mobile phone standard for five years, the EU said.

    Qualcomm paid billions of US dollars to a key customer, Apple, so that it would not buy from rivals. This meant that no rival could effectively challenge Qualcomm in this market

    The EU moves come as Qualcomm tries to fend off a US$105bn hostile takeover by rival Broadcom and wages war with Apple in numerous court cases around the world over patent licensing. Qualcomm rejected Broadcom’s offer last year, telling shareholders that the bid undervalued the company and “comes with significant regulatory uncertainty”.

    Shares in Qualcomm fell 2.9% at 12.15pm in Frankfurt.

    “Apple was seriously thinking of switching” from Qualcomm to Intel chips “which would have made a big difference to Intel”, Vestager told reporters at a Brussels press conference. “It would have cost Apple a lot of money” if it switched chips while the deal was in place and it only started to source from Intel when the agreement was about to expire in September 2016.

    “The outcome is that rivals are prevented from challenging dominant companies with more innovative products,” Vestager said. The fine represents 4.9% of Qualcomm’s revenue in 2017, the EU said.

    Vestager said the decision sends a warning to other companies who would contemplate using similar practices: “Don’t go there.”

    Qualcomm, Apple and Intel representatives didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

    Apple

    When asked whether Apple also bears any responsibility for the practice, Vestager said this is about Qualcomm and there’s no evidence of wrongdoing from the Cupertino, California-based company.

    The case has parallels with the EU’s 2009 finding that Intel’s rebates to computer manufacturers and payments to a retailer were aimed at squeezing out a smaller chip maker. The EU’s top court has ordered a lower tribunal to re-examine Intel’s appeal and weigh whether the EU can merely assume that such tactics are illegal without proving they were harmful to rivals and competition.

    It’s the first time the EU has landed a blow on Qualcomm, nearly a decade after officials dropped a four-year probe in 2009 into how it licensed patents used in the 3G phone standard. There was no fine or any finding that Qualcomm violated antitrust rules in that case.

    Qualcomm’s chips dominate in smartphones

    Wednesday’s decision concludes one of two EU antitrust probes targeting the US company. The second EU probe, still underway, centres on whether Qualcomm deliberately sold chipsets for “dongles” — plug-in devices that connect computers to the Internet — at below cost from 2009 to 2011 to hinder competitor Icera, now owned by Nvidia. That case has escalated with a court dispute over information the EU sought from the company. Qualcomm was threatened with additional daily fines for not quickly supplying data the EU wanted.

    Apple and Qualcomm have been waging legal battles over the world. Apple says Qualcomm charges too much and is leveraging its strong market position in chips illegally. Qualcomm counters that Apple, one of its largest customers, has lied to regulators in an unfair attempt to bully it into charging less.  — Reported by Aoife White, with assistance from Nikos Chrysoloras and Christopher Elser, (c) 2018 Bloomberg LP

    Apple Broadcom Intel Margrethe Vestager Qualcomm
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleNaspers unit buys anti-piracy firm
    Next Article What the smartphone of 2023 will look like

    Related Posts

    State capture probe ends but South Africa remains ‘broken’ by corruption

    23 June 2022

    Vivica Group, formerly Vox, looks beyond ICT

    23 June 2022

    Protests break out at Eskom plants

    23 June 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Huawei P50 now available for pre-order in South Africa

    23 June 2022

    Calabrio paves way for SA’s cloud contact centre WFO journey alongside AWS

    23 June 2022

    More than card machines – iKhokha diversifies to reach more SMEs

    22 June 2022
    Opinion

    Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

    21 June 2022

    Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

    13 June 2022

    A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

    19 May 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.