EU slaps Qualcomm with $1.23 billion fine over illegal chip payment to Apple
The European Union on Wednesday announced that it determined chipmaker Qualcomm illegally shut out rivals when it paid Apple billions of dollars to stick with its LTE baseband chips for five years. Qualcomm will pay a hefty price for its misdeeds: 997 million euros, or $1.23 billion U.S.

"Qualcomm paid billions of US Dollars to a key customer, Apple, so that it would not buy from rivals," European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. "These payments were not just reductions in price -- they were made on the condition that Apple would exclusively use Qualcomm's baseband chipsets in all its iPhones and iPads."
The EU determined that Qualcomm's market dominance in LTE baseband chipsets came about in part because of payments to Apple that violated EU antitrust rules.
Qualcomm entered into its exclusive agreement with Apple in 2011, and again extended the deal in 2013 until the end of 2016. The EU found that Qualcomm's rival chipmakers were "denied the possibility to compete effectively for Apple's significant business, no matter how good their products were."
Internal documents seen by the EU found that Apple "gave serious consideration" to switching part of its baseband chipset supply. But the paid exclusive arrangement from Qualcomm proved to be a factor in Apple not changing, according to the European Commission, which is the executive body of the EU.

Apple eventually started using Intel-supplied modems in the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in late 2016. Since then, it has been suggested that Apple could eliminate use of Qualcomm modems entirely from its product lineup.
Qualcomm's troubles extend well beyond its hefty EU fine. The company is also engaged in a $1 billion lawsuit from Apple, claiming payments were withheld as retaliation for Apple's participation in an FTC investigation.

The FTC also sued Qualcomm for antitrust violations last year, and the chipmaker was hit with a $773 million fine by Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission.
Qualcomm saw its net income drop year over year from $1.6 billion to just $168 million late last year, citing Apple's withheld payments as a chief cause.

"Qualcomm paid billions of US Dollars to a key customer, Apple, so that it would not buy from rivals," European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. "These payments were not just reductions in price -- they were made on the condition that Apple would exclusively use Qualcomm's baseband chipsets in all its iPhones and iPads."
The EU determined that Qualcomm's market dominance in LTE baseband chipsets came about in part because of payments to Apple that violated EU antitrust rules.
Qualcomm entered into its exclusive agreement with Apple in 2011, and again extended the deal in 2013 until the end of 2016. The EU found that Qualcomm's rival chipmakers were "denied the possibility to compete effectively for Apple's significant business, no matter how good their products were."
Internal documents seen by the EU found that Apple "gave serious consideration" to switching part of its baseband chipset supply. But the paid exclusive arrangement from Qualcomm proved to be a factor in Apple not changing, according to the European Commission, which is the executive body of the EU.

Apple eventually started using Intel-supplied modems in the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in late 2016. Since then, it has been suggested that Apple could eliminate use of Qualcomm modems entirely from its product lineup.
Qualcomm's troubles extend well beyond its hefty EU fine. The company is also engaged in a $1 billion lawsuit from Apple, claiming payments were withheld as retaliation for Apple's participation in an FTC investigation.

The FTC also sued Qualcomm for antitrust violations last year, and the chipmaker was hit with a $773 million fine by Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission.
Qualcomm saw its net income drop year over year from $1.6 billion to just $168 million late last year, citing Apple's withheld payments as a chief cause.

Comments
Seems to be a little typo in there: "Internal documents seen by the EU found that Apple "gave serious consideration" to switching part of its baseband chipset supply to Apple." I think the author meant Intel rather than Apple.
Granted Apple and Qualcomm is fighting right now but so what? I like cheering on Apple beating Qualcomm or Google as much the next guy here but it’s still “in the family” so to speak.
When foreign governments make moneygrabs against US companies, even the ones I’m meh about, it’s a money grab against the US stock market and a money grab against the economy of the US. I’m sure I have Q buried in some fund or another.
Qualcomm is just like HP, Westinghouse, Motorola, IBM, DEC, Sun, Intel, Apple, AT&T, Microsoft. Some of those still around, some of those not (or just in name).
Ever hear of the Viterbi algorithm? Invented by a co-founder of Qualcomm, Andrew Viterbi.
So it’s another one of US’s inventor/founder tech companies.
Samsung they can beat on like a drum all day long and I don’t much care.
Isn’t this what people usually call ‘a discount’?
Apple: OK. (takes money)
EU: Hey Qualcomm, give us more money because you gave Apple money.
Qualcomm: Dammit
Apple: LOLZ
Not when it forces Apple to only use Qualcomm modems. Then it is called abuse of monopoly. That is why Qualcomm was fined $1.3 BILLION.
Apple was willing to go along with Qualcomm pricing as long as it benefitted their business. Now it presumably doesn't. That's the gist of it. Apple still signs contracts with companies like Philips, LG, Ericsson, Nokia and others that collect royalties based on the entire device price and not just a component. When it is no longer in Apple's interests to do so, and as Apple becomes ever more powerful, they may cause a ruckus with those contracts as well. They've started similar dust-ups with Nokia and Ericsson claiming unfair licensing practices in recent years only to come around to agreements with them too and settle out-of-court, and paying royalties to the IP owners based on a finished device cost just as Qualcomm would like to continue doing.
It's simple business and really nothing more, companies fighting over money to see who can keep more of it. PROFIT!
It's folks like us on forums that make it into something nefarious because we're fans and proceed to make statements of "unfair, it's against the law", "it's not FRAND!", "no one else does this" and other claims of illegal dealings with little understanding of the industry licensing practices for standards-committed and non-essential IP.
No EU country has ever used Qualcomm's version of CDMA commercially. The EU standardised on GSM (an open standard) early to encourage competition.