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Qualcomm being investigated by European Union for abusing its market position

By: , IntoMobile
Monday, October 1st, 2007 at 4:40 PM

European Commission kicks off Qualcomm investigation in the EUApparently, 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]

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About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...