Qualcomm dodges $1 billion EU fine over LTE deal with Apple

The European Union’s General Court Rules in Favor of Qualcomm

The European Union’s second highest court has ruled in favor of Qualcomm and has scrapped a 2018 European Commission decision to impose a €997 million fine on the company. The Commission accused Qualcomm of abusing its market dominance in LTE baseband chipsets by allegedly paying Apple billions of dollars from 2011 to 2016 to exclusively use its chips in iPhones and iPads, thus preventing rivals like Intel from making deals with Apple.

Procedural Irregularities and Lack of Evidence

The General Court based its decision on two main factors. Firstly, it found several procedural irregularities that affected Qualcomm’s right to defend itself. The Commission failed to properly record the content of meetings and calls with third parties related to the case. Additionally, the General Court found that while Qualcomm’s payments did reduce Apple’s incentives to use other products, there were no viable alternatives to its LTE chipsets for iPhones at that time. Furthermore, there was insufficient evidence to determine if Qualcomm’s payments prevented Apple from using other chipsets for its iPad models released in 2014 and 2015.

Commission’s Fine Overturned

This is the second time the General Court has overturned a fine imposed by the European Commission on a big tech company. In January, the court also scrapped a €1.06 billion fine imposed on Intel for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the market by offering incentives to manufacturers to use its microprocessors over those of rival AMD. Despite this ruling in Qualcomm’s favor, the Commission still has the option to appeal to Europe’s highest court and has stated that it will carefully review the judgment before deciding its next steps.