Qualcomm being investigated by European Union for abusing its market position
Posted by Will on Monday, October 1st, 2007 at 4:40 pm under 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 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, Broadcom 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]
July 21st, 2008 at 12:49 pm
[...] Nokia is seen as being at a disadvantage in the face of industry precedent for Qualcomm's demands for royalties. Qualcomm has secured royalty deals, amounting to 5% of a handset's cost, from 90 other industry members. These deals could make it hard for Nokia to walk away from this trial without having to pay Qualcomm on each of their CDMA handsets. And, the trial's outcome will likely have negative impacts on the outstanding lawsuits still in limbo on three different continents. [...]