Qualcomm Wins Fight Against $1 Billion EU Antitrust Fine

U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm on Wednesday won its fight against a 997 million euro ($1.05 billion) fine imposed by EU antitrust regulators four years ago, dealing a major setback to EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager's crackdown on Big Tech. From a report: The European Commission in its 2018 decision said Qualcomm paid billions of dollars to Apple from 2011 to 2016 to use only its chips in all its iPhones and iPads in order to block out rivals such as Intel. Qualcomm's fine is one of several imposed by Vestager on companies ranging from Alphabet unit Google to banks and truckmakers over anti-competitive practices.

Re:

[TigerPlish]

They did, they weren't all that good (apparently) and Apple bought the modem-chip part of Intel. Also legal entanglements with Qualcomm ensued.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/t... [nbcnews.com]

Re:

[Whateverthisis]

This [inquartik.com] is a pretty good summary of the Apple-Qualcomm-Intel situation, although I was unaware that Qualcomm was paying Apple. I guess you could construe this as payments to Apple in that they require less of a royalty than they charge to others. This is a weird case for the EU to take, because in the lawsuit between Apple and Qualcomm, Qualcomm alleged that Apple gave Qualcomm technology to Intel to make them competitive.

At the heart of this is Qualcomm demands a 7.5% royalty on any device using a Qualc

Once Again

[NoWayNoShapeNoForm]

While others invent...the EU legislates.

Sorry Brussels. Learn a lesson from The Swamp in 'Murica. You cannot legislate your way to greatness.

How does the EU remain competitive?

[schwit1]

"This is the second major defeat for Vestager who in January lost the court's backing for a 1.06 billion euro fine on Intel 12 years ago for squeezing rival Advanced Micro Devices."

12 years ago? Is the system just a long-term jobs program for bureaucrats and lawyers?

Re:

[JaredOfEuropa]

In some cases yes. It's a step up from what it used to be: basically a place to put politicians, who in their own country are past their sell-by date, out to pasture. Not that nothing good comes of it. Such as a competition watchdog with some real teeth. They do score some wins, and they certainly don't only go after US tech companies.

Re:

[bn-7bc]

Ok slightly ot, but personally i think the EUs usb-c charger mandate is a good thing, micro ysb and yes also lightning connector wil be a thing if the oast in a few yers ( at least for any new phone and/or tablet sold in the EU and EEA, so ( giving a bit of time for most older devices to rotate out of common usage) i would say that in 7-10 years reatilers within said regions would only have to stock track and supply one kind if charger caple ( well maybe 2 or 3 to price optimize fir different wattages e

Re:

[JaredOfEuropa]

I'd support Putin if it would get rid of micro USB...

Re:

[thegarbz]

Is the system just a long-term jobs program for bureaucrats and lawyers?

Of course. Policing the laws of the land is just a jobs program, one that has a secondary function of making society work. We can't all be corrupt Americans turning a blind eye to the rich fucking over everyone else.

Doesn't speak well for Vestager's management

[david.emery]

Independent of what you think of the position, what's clear is that Vestager is doing a terrible job managing her office. The big mistakes in the execution of the investigation, and the failure to clearly consider all required factors in the complaint, speak poorly for the office she runs.

Add to that the track record of major losses in the courts, and I wonder how she still has that job. But I'm guessing removing a senior Eurocrat is probably a difficult proposition.

Re:Doesn't speak well for Vestager's management

[thegarbz]

Add to that the track record of major losses in the courts

What track record? Remember this was overturned on first appeal which means she actually won the last court battle and has the option to take it to a third appeal, something that is very likely.

It's like me saying you have a track record of saying stupid things without ever looking up if any of your other posts contained stupid things.

Re:Doesn't speak well for Vestager's management

[david.emery]

The most obvious is the overturn of the Apple/Ireland tax case: https://www.politico.com/news/... [politico.com] And this case on Amazon: https://www.bbc.com/news/techn... [bbc.com] This on Three/O2 merger: https://www.ft.com/content/8c5... [ft.com]

Re:

[thegarbz]

Again, 2 of those three were initially won. Just because something is overturned on appeal doesn't mean someone lost, it means it is a tie. The question is does a 3rd appeal occur? In those three cases nothing has happened yet, but read the details to see what insane technicalities were used to overturn the decision. Hell Apple even admitted that it's entire argument was not about how much tax it was supposed to pay.

But good work on the selection bias. I'm sure you typed "Vestagers lost" into google to make

Oh-oh

[cheesybagel]

This sounds similar to the kickbacks Intel used to give Dell for exclusivity.
These kickbacks were used to lock AMD out of the PC market.
Qualcomm is doing really shitty monopolist behavior.

Not what the news says in Europe

[Errol backfiring]

According to the news at the other side of the pond, the process was stopped because of legal irregularities. So no one lost or won, but a lot of money was burned in the legal procedure.