Abuse of dominance: Qualcomm in the sights of the FTC

The FTC has filed a complaint against Qualcomm. It accuses it of abusing its position of actor essential in the sector of chips for smartphones.


Qualcomm is hurt by the judicial abuse of the dominant position. And what remained an international affair is now taking shape within its local market. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) takes legal action against the US chip maker before a federal court, Reuters tells us. The commission, which could be compared to our competition authority, accuses Qualcomm of anti-competitive methods to maintain its monopoly in the semiconductor market for mobile phones. Methods considered to be in violation of US trade rules.

The FTC criticizes Qualcomm for taking advantage of its many standards in 3G and 4G communication technologies to impose unacceptable licensing conditions. "Qualcomm refuses to provide its radio processors unless a customer accepts a license for essential patents under Qualcomm's preferential terms, including high royalties that the customer must pay when using competitor processors (" no License-no component "), accuses the Commission in its complaint. It also refers to refusals of sales of standard cellular patents to competitors (not designated) in violation of the Frans (Fair reasonnable and non-discriminatory) license commitments. We also learn that Qualcomm has entered into an exclusive agreement with Apple.

Qualcomm demented

The San Diego company has strongly denied the charges. "The representation of the facts advanced by the FTC is very erroneous, defended the accused by way of communiqué. In particular, Qualcomm never retained or threatened to retain the supply of components in order to obtain an agreement on unfair or unreasonable conditions of license. The FTC's allegation - the central thesis of the complaint - is false. "

Qualcomm also points out that the complaint is part of the end of the mission of the president of the FTC, whose term ends on February 10, shortly after the election of Donald Trump. The 45th president of the United States should appoint Republican Maureen Ohlhausen as president of the FTC. The latter has already considered that the Commission's complaint was based on "an imperfect legal theory ... which lacks economic support and evidence," reports Reuters. The tone is given.

China, Korea, Europe ...

"In our recent discussions with the FTC, it became apparent that they still lacked basic industry information and relied on inaccurate information and assumptions," says Don Rosenberg, Charge of the law to the designer of mobile chips. In fact Qualcomm was still receiving requests for information from the agency that would be necessary for an informed view of the facts when it became clear that the FTC was preparing to file a complaint before the transition to the new administration. "

Transition or not, Qualcomm was nonetheless condemned, at the end of December, by the Korea Fair Trade Commission to a fine of 820 million dollars for its commercial practices in South Korea. Condemnation which remains to be formalized. Previously, the San Diego company had signed a check of nearly one billion dollars in China for violating an "anti-monopoly" law dating from 2008. Qualcomm has also been in the sights of the European Commission for over a year .