SAN DIEGO, July 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Qualcomm
Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) announced that the European
Commission's Directorate General for Competition, after a 10-year
investigation, issued a finding that Qualcomm engaged in predatory
pricing practices for some sales of three cellular baseband
chipsets to two customers during a few calendar quarters between
2009 and 2011, and fined Qualcomm 242
million euros. Qualcomm plans to appeal the finding to
the General Court of the European Union. Qualcomm intends to
provide a financial guarantee in lieu of paying the fine while the
appeal is pending.
"The Commission spent years investigating sales to two
customers, each of whom said that they favored Qualcomm chips not
because of price but because rival chipsets were technologically
inferior. This decision is unsupported by the law, economic
principles or market facts, and we look forward to a reversal on
appeal," said Don Rosenberg,
executive vice president and general counsel of Qualcomm.
"The Commission's decision is based on a novel theory of alleged
below-cost pricing over a very short time period and for a very
small volume of chips. There is no precedent for this theory, which
is inconsistent with well-developed economic analysis of cost
recovery, as well as Commission practice. Contrary to the
Commission's findings, Qualcomm's alleged conduct did not cause
anticompetitive harm to Icera, the company that filed the
complaint. Icera was later acquired by Nvidia for hundreds of
millions of dollars and continued to compete in the relevant market
for several years after the end of the alleged conduct. We
cooperated with Commission officials every step of the way
throughout the protracted investigation, confident that the
Commission would recognize that there were no facts supporting a
finding of anti-competitive conduct. On appeal we will expose
the meritless nature of this decision."
About Qualcomm
Qualcomm invents breakthrough technologies that transform how
the world connects, computes and communicates. When we
connected the phone to the Internet, the mobile revolution was
born. Today, our inventions are the foundation for life-changing
products, experiences, and industries. As we lead the world to 5G,
we envision this next big change in cellular technology spurring a
new era of intelligent, connected devices and enabling new
opportunities in connected cars, remote delivery of health care
services, and the IoT — including smart cities, smart homes, and
wearables. Qualcomm Incorporated includes our licensing business,
QTL, and the vast majority of our patent portfolio. Qualcomm
Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated,
operates, along with its subsidiaries, substantially all of our
engineering, research and development functions, and substantially
all of our products and services businesses, including the QCT
semiconductor business. For more information, visit Qualcomm's
website, OnQ
blog, Twitter and Facebook pages.
Qualcomm is a trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated, registered
in the United States and other
countries.
Qualcomm Contacts:
Christie Thoene, Public
Affairs--
Phone: 1-858-845-5959
Email: publicaffairs@qualcomm.com
Pete Lancia, Corporate
Communications
Phone: 1-858-845-5959
Email: corpcomm@qualcomm.com
Mauricio Lopez-Hodoyan, Investor Relations
Phone: 1-858-651-1387
Email: ir@qualcomm.com
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SOURCE Qualcomm Incorporated