Sunday, February 26, 2017
QUALCOMM RECORD 853 MILLION FINE FOR ABUSE OF DOMINANT POSITION
QUALCOMM RECORD 853 MILLION FINE FOR ABUSE OF DOMINANT POSITION
Qualcomm, the microprocessor giant, has just been awarded a record fine in South Korea. The company is damaged for abuse of a dominant position. This is not the first time the firm has been punished in Asia. China had already made its own in 2015.
This is not the first time that Qualcomm has been pinned for abuse of dominant position. In 2015, China had ordered the company and the fine had skyrocketed 975 million. At that time, the National Commission for Development and Reform had condemned Qualcomm for anti-competitive practices.
The company seems not to have learned the lesson and it is this time in South Korea that it is pinned where it is condemned to pay $ 853 million in fines. Qualcomm was in the viewfinder of the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) about its practices limit of legality in marketing its patent licenses. We were talking about it recently, the patent licenses represent about 30% of the price of a smartphone, its huge.
Thus, Qualcomm is accused of having limited access to certain patents to its competitors such as Intel and Samsung. But thats not all, since Qualcomm have also used its dominant position in the market for microprocessors impose operating rights to exorbitant rates among smartphone manufacturers. Qualcomm would even have threatened to withdraw from the sale if the builders did not accept.
Following this conviction, Qualcomm has challenged the decision of the Commission. What he had not done following his conviction in China. This time, the brand defends itself by highlighting the fact that these practices are not new, in South Korea as elsewhere in the world. Even if the protest is accepted, in terms of image Qualcomm takes a little blow on the head. At least in South Korea, stronghold of its major rival in the micro-processor market, Samsung.
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