Qualcomm, Taiwan reach settlement on $773M antitrust fine
The chipmaker is facing one less lawsuit now that it has agreed to invest in Taiwan in exchange for the dismissal of a large fine.
According to Bloomberg News, Qualcomm has reached a settlement agreement with Taiwanese antitrust regulators. Under terms of the deal, the regulators have agreed to reverse most of a $773 million fine against the chipmaker, in exchange for Qualcomm investing $700 million in Taiwan over the next five years.
The company also agreed to conduct more research in Taiwan, and can once again charge royalties on its technology in the country.
The fine was first assessed in October 2017, when Taiwan's FTC claimed that over a seven-year period, Qualcomm had "abused its advantage in mobile communication standards, refused to license necessary patents."
Qualcomm will not get back the $89 million already paid in fines, but will no longer be on the hook for the rest.
The company is currently in the midst of multiple patent and royalty lawsuits, including more than a dozen between Qualcomm and Apple that are being fought in the U.S., the European Union and other parts of the world. Qualcomm believes Apple is putting pressure on governments to act against Qualcomm.
In July, Qualcomm indicated that Apple will use modems from Intel, rather than Qualcomm, beginning with a future generation of iPhones. The move is unconfirmed, but could deal a significant revenue blow to Qualcomm.
In March, the U.S. government blocked a hostile takeover bid of Qualcomm by rival Broadcom.
According to Bloomberg News, Qualcomm has reached a settlement agreement with Taiwanese antitrust regulators. Under terms of the deal, the regulators have agreed to reverse most of a $773 million fine against the chipmaker, in exchange for Qualcomm investing $700 million in Taiwan over the next five years.
The company also agreed to conduct more research in Taiwan, and can once again charge royalties on its technology in the country.
The fine was first assessed in October 2017, when Taiwan's FTC claimed that over a seven-year period, Qualcomm had "abused its advantage in mobile communication standards, refused to license necessary patents."
Qualcomm will not get back the $89 million already paid in fines, but will no longer be on the hook for the rest.
The company is currently in the midst of multiple patent and royalty lawsuits, including more than a dozen between Qualcomm and Apple that are being fought in the U.S., the European Union and other parts of the world. Qualcomm believes Apple is putting pressure on governments to act against Qualcomm.
In July, Qualcomm indicated that Apple will use modems from Intel, rather than Qualcomm, beginning with a future generation of iPhones. The move is unconfirmed, but could deal a significant revenue blow to Qualcomm.
In March, the U.S. government blocked a hostile takeover bid of Qualcomm by rival Broadcom.
Comments
Taiwan collected $90M (US) and is dropping the charges (does that mean they are considered innocent now, technically never found guilty?) as explained in the AI article. This one also ends up largely validating Qualcomm's licensing model too so yet another odd outcome.
The Korean antitrust case against them is apparently under review with questions about Samsung influencing the outcome as part of a corruption scandal involving Korean government officials so hard to say how that one plays out. Big surprise huh?
The EU Commission also wants $1.2B US and considering it's the EU I suspect an appeal will be for naught. (Does anyone win EU Commission appeals?). That one was a bit different tho as the EU's complaint involved Qualcomm paying rebates to Apple to lock them in as a customer and thus "stifle competition". the general licensing model is allowed to continue. Yet more oddity.
I'm not aware of any other current antitrust rulings and fines but there might be. There's still investigations under way in various venues according to media articles so no doubt more to come.
Blackberry got $815 million through arbitration over patent license royalties (the exact details are unknown, but it sure sounds similar to other cases). This case is final and can't be appealed.
That's speculation as the actual terms are sealed. What we do know is A) it involves Qualcomm (yet again) and
https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2017/04/12/arbitration-panel-awards-refund-blackberry
http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2017/06/02/blackberry-settles-arbitration-qualcomm-940-million-contract-dispute-patent-royalties/id=83882/
But yes I agree with you that it involves Qualcomm and royalties, so yeah count it if you want.
So, if I murdered someone it would be all forgiven if I promised to invest?
Governments have interesting business models...
Those links hardly explain anything. They are both repeating the same point, which is a single sentence from Qualcomm about the deal. We don't know a damn thing about how Blackberry and Qualcomm's licensing deal was structured or what the original terms are. Therefore nobody can make the claim that it was related to antitrust issues or not.
My point still stands. Qualcomm has lost numerous cases in multiple jurisdictions around the world (and still has several to go). If they were found guilty in a single case, one could argue it was an outlier or related to the laws of a specific region. To lose (and be investigated) so many times in such a short span of time over patent licensing issues is a pretty clear indicator who's in the wrong here. And it's obvious that entity is Qualcomm.
That I specifically pointed out that these settlements with Qualcomm allowing their licensing models to continue was something I considered odd should have been an obvious clue that I agree with you about "who's in the wrong here".
I remember when Microsoft actually asked if it could pay its anti-trust fine by providing schools with PCs for 'free'. I was flabbergasted that they had the cheek to try that.
QC seems to have got off very lightly.
Theyve already paid 89million, which means they only owed 684million when they agreed to pay 700million to settle the case.
So in effect, they agreed to pay an extra 16million to wrap this up quickly.
When the EU realises that Qualcomm will pay extra to avoid the protracted stalling of its licensing business then I suspect the fines to increase, followed by a settlement greater than the fine.
Now that I think about it, that's the equivalent of sending a teenager to his room where his XBox, laptop, iPad, phone, and TV are all waiting for him.