EC Pushes Ahead with Qualcomm Competition Case Over 3G Chips

The European Commission is continuing its competition case against Qualkcomm for predatory pricing in the UMTS chip market. The Commission sent a supplementary statement of objections to Qualcomm, following up its initial allegations issued in December 2015.

The Commission accuses Qualcomm of selling certain UMTS baseband chipsets for mobile phones at prices below cost in the period 2009-11 in an attempt to push rival Icera out of the market. The latest objections focus on certain elements of the “price-cost” test applied by the Commission to assess the extent to which Qualcomm took a loss on the chipsets.

This case was first opened in July 2015 and is separate from the fine issued by the Commission against Qualcomm in January this year. The latter case concerned Qualcomm’s abuse of its dominant position in the phone chip market by imposing exclusivity clauses on customers.  – Telecompaper