Qualcomm being investigated by European Union for abusing its market position
By Will Park on Monday, October 1st, 2007 at 4:40 PM PST In Announcements, Partnerships
Apparently, the European Union (EU) doesn’t take kindly to major players abusing their dominant market position to step all over competitors. And as such, the EU’s European Commission has kicked off their anti-trust investigation into Qualcomm’s business practices in the mobile chipset market.
The investigation was spurred by complaints from Nokia and Broadcom (surprise, surprise), among others, that Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) did not license it’s CDMA and WCDMA (3G) chipset technology according to the EU’s rules - known as fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.
In their defense, Qualcomm said that their licensing model had allowed new vendors to enter the market, giving consumers the benefit of competition and more development. But, at the end of the day, this situation is more about all parties involved (that includes you, Qualcomm) not having the goodwill to deal with licensing schemes in grown-up negotiations, rather than crying foul and trying to get what you want by complaining (Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Broadcom (NSDQ: BRCM) we’re talking about you).
Will Qualcomm ever get out from under the cloud of litigation that’s hovering overhead? Maybe some day, but not anytime soon. Keep fighting the good fight, Qualcomm, we’ll see you on the other side.
[Via: Yahoo]
