Taiwan Fair Trade Commission fines Qualcomm over $700 million

Qualcomm has been fighting various antitrust charges over the last couple of years. At first, the company was fined $975 million in China, then in 2016 regulators in South Korea fined the company over $850 million. The European Union has ruled against Qualcomm in an antitrust case and now, the chip maker has been fined over $700 million for anti-competitive practises in Taiwan.

The Taiwan Fair Trade Commission announced today that it will fine Qualcomm $774.14 million for anti-trust violations. In a statement translated by Reuters, the Commission said that Qualcomm had a monopoly over the LTE, CDMA and WCDMA chip markets and refused to license its technology to certain other companies in the industry.

Aside from the fine, the Taiwanese authorities are requiring Qualcomm to begin playing nice when it comes to patent licensing agreements. The chip maker must also submit a progress report every six months to show progress towards a fix.

This isn’t the only antitrust ruling Qualcomm has to worry about. The Federal Trade Commission over in the US is also investigating the company following accusations made by Apple. The likes of Samsung and Intel have also spoken out in support of the FTC’s investigation, claiming that Qualcomm harms the industry.

KitGuru Says: At this point, Qualcomm has been called out on antitrust violations in multiple countries and continents. With this much smoke surrounding the issue, it seems clear that some changes are needed.

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