Apple and Qualcomm are now locked in a legal battle. The claim from against Qualcomm is that the company is anticompetitive in its methods to keep their monopoly on the semiconductor market in mobile phones.
Qualcomm chips are found in iPhones, Samsung, HTC, LG, Xiaomi, Sony, LeEco, HP, ZTE, ASUS, OnePlus, Moto and more. With so many companies using Qualcomm chips, it’s easy to see how the semiconductor company is a target for lawsuits. Samsung and Apple made up 40% of Qualcomm’s $23.5 billion revenue the last financial year.
Apple’s Claims
Apple is claiming that Qualcomm overcharging and not paying promised rebates. Apple is chasing $1 billion dollars in alleged rebates from Qualcomm. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
Apple is claiming that Qualcomm tried to bully them into providing false information to the KFTC in exchange for the promised rebates. Qualcomm is alleged to have refused to licence their chips to other companies to foster competition.
Qualcomm is being accused of a “no licence, no chip” policy. This policy is said to require Apple to pay a separate license fee for chips sold. The last claim is that Qualcomm coerced network carriers to ignore iPhones with Intel Chipsets.
Qualcomm Fight Back
Qualcomm is attacking back, with Qualcomm General Counsel Don Rosenberg claiming “Apple has been actively encouraging regulatory attacks on Qualcomm’s business in various jurisdictions around the world, as reflected in the recent KFTC decision and FTC complaint, by misrepresenting facts and withholding information.”
This lawsuit follows from South Korea going after Qualcomm for their anticompetitive tactics. Qualcomm has also had the U.S. Federal Trade Commission file a lawsuit on Tuesday. In December Qualcomm received a penalty from the Korea Fair Trade Commission in South Korea in December. In 2015 Qualcomm faced challenges from China and the European Union for unfair practices.
Until the iPhone 7, Qualcomm supplied all the chipsets in iPhones. That changed, with iPhones having about half Qualcomm and half Intel chips.
Source: Reuters
