Qualcomm Challenged By South Korean Antitrust Authorities
South Korean antitrust authorities have accused Qualcomm of violating the South Korean law.
Qualcomm is facing a challenge in the Asian region. The chip manufacturer stated South Korea’s antitrust agencies have alleged it of breaking the country’s law through its authorizing practices and they plan to impose a fine on the corporation.
The disclosure regarding the investigation, which was first conducted previously, is the most recent in a set of battles that the company has fought with antitrust regulatory bodies across the globe over its authorizing business, which is the means through which the company earns a major part of its profit.
Qualcomm news affirmed its statement in recent times that it was able to receive a staff generated Case examiner’s Report of the Korea Fair Trade Commission, which initiates a procedure that provides an opportunity to the chipmaker to give its response to accusations and protect itself.
The report accuses, amongst other things, that the company does not effectively negotiate terms of its license and its strategy of authorizing patents only at the gadget level and requiring its chipset clients be licensed to its intellectual property breach South Korean competition regulation.
The report suggests remedies, including that the giant needs to alter specific business practices and pay a fine. Qualcomm stated, "The allegations and conclusions contained in the ER are not supported by the facts and are a serious misapplication of law, Our patent licensing practices, which we and other patent owners have maintained for almost two decades, and which have facilitated the growth of the mobile communications industry in Korea and elsewhere, are lawful and pro-competitive.”
Qualcomm news today exclaimed that the organization aims to "vigorously defend" itself at hearings of the authority and it continues to be hopeful that the commission would not accept the report’s conclusions. As per reports of WSJ, KFTC’s spokesperson stated they could not share their views regarding continuing investigations.
The new phase of South Korea’s investigation is the most recent example of the trouble the organization is facing from different regulators across the globe. Qualcomm Breaking news reported that in July, the European Commission started to conduct two official antitrust inquiries into the organization’s selling practices in the baseband chipset marketplace.
The first looks at whether the company has breached the EU’s antitrust regulations that are known for prohibiting the misuse of a leading market position by providing fiscal incentives to clients on condition that they purchase baseband chipsets almost exclusively or exclusively from the organization.
The second is concerned with determining whether Qualcomm involves itself in "predatory pricing" by charging prices lesser than the costs to eliminate competition from the market.
