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Qualcomm will not have to pay the fine of 997 million for Apple modems

Qualcomm will not pay the fine imposed by the EU for him agreement the company had with Apple in relation to their modems. According to Reuters, the European Union has given up and is not going to appeal the decision made by the EU General Court, the second highest court in the region, to annul the sanction for irregularities in the process.

The sanction was imposed in 2018, after the European Commission opened a monopoly investigation that established that between 2011 and 2016, Qualcomm illegally imposed itself on its rivals as a result of an agreement with Apple so that it would continue to use its chips of LTE baseband for five years. Qualcomm already announced shortly after meeting her that she was going to appeal her.

A court froze the payment of the penalty last June, alleging that there was not enough evidence to prove that Apple or the market were harmed because of Qualcomm’s deal with Apple. And the General Court has criticized the European Commission for its handling of the case, pointing out that Qualcomm’s right to defense was affected by procedural irregularities in the initial trial.

Specifically, the judges have highlighted that there was «various procedural irregularities that affected Qualcomm’s right to defense and invalidate the analysis of the conduct alleged by the Commission against Qualcomm«. The company signed its exclusive agreement with Apple for the sale of iPhone modems in 2011, and in 2013 extended the agreement until the end of 2016. Then, the European Union discovered that rival chipmakers of Qualcomm «they were denied the ability to compete effectively for Apple’s important business, no matter how good their products were«.

Several internal documents examined by the EU before fixing the fine indicate that Apple «seriously valued» change some of its supply of baseband chipsets before it did for the iPhone 7 . Qualcomm’s exclusive payment arrangement became one of the main reasons Apple didn’t switch providers, according to the European Commission.

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