The EU anti-monopoly agency just leveled a fine on American chip maker, Qualcomm. The company will pay a fine of €242 million ($272 million) due to anti-monopoly behaviors. According to the EU, Qualcomm deliberately lowers the price of some chips so as to eliminate smaller competitors. This behavior obstructs market participants and it’s against EU laws. The €242 million ($272 million) is equivalent to 1.27% of Qualcomm’s 2018 revenue.
After the announcement of the fine, Qualcomm shares fell 1.58% before the market. At the beginning of 2018, the EU imposed a fine of €997 million on Qualcomm. This is equivalent to 4.9% of Qualcomm’s 2017 revenue because Qualcomm abused market dominance and “bribe” Apple to demand its iPhone, The iPad can only use Qualcomm baseband.
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Qualcomm set to appeal the decision by EU
Qualcomm says it would file a lawsuit against the EU’s €242 million ($272 million) antitrust fine imposed on Qualcomm today. The company would appeal to the EU Intermediate Court “General Court”. In addition, it will provide financial guarantees in lieu of paying fines during the pending appeal. Don Rosenberg, executive vice president and general counsel of Qualcomm, said in a statement: “The European Commission spent several years investigating our sales to two customers, but each customer said they were not favored because of price, but because the competitor’s chipset is technically poor.” In today’s pre-market trading, Qualcomm shares fell 1.1% . However, this year alone, Qualcomm’s share price has risen by 33%.