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Qualcomm Wins the US Antitrust Suit Filed by Federal Trade Commission

Date: October 30, 2020 Nandita Bhardwaj Nandita Bhardwaj
Qualcomm Wins the US Antitrust Suit Filed by Federal Trade Commission 
A U.S. appeals court declined to reconsider its decision that terminated the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) case against Qualcomm Inc.



The three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals claimed that FTC was not able to prove that Qualcomm’s practices created an anticompetitive effect on the cellular chip industry. The FTC requested the whole court to rehear arguments and reassess the panel decision.



The panel stated in its order that it would not listen to any further arguments on if the chip designing company was involved in anticompetitive patent-licensing practices to control the market for modern chips that linked smartphones and wireless data networks.



The general counsel and executive vice president of Qualcomm, Don Rosenberg, expressed while thanking the court for its time and efforts that, none of the judges in the 9th Circuit found it necessary to consider the facts of FTC’s petition or ask Qualcomm’s response, represents the clarity and strength of the panel’s detailed analysis and result.



Last year, Lucy Koh, the US district judge, favored FTC, which accused Qualcomm of using anticompetitive strategies to maintain a monopoly on the market for modem chips and license key wireless technology. Koh ruled an order that the California-based company was involved in anticompetitive behavior against major smartphone makers like Samsung and Apple, including intimidating to cut off chip supplies or suppression technical support.



Judge Callahan disagreed with FTC’s main argument that the company was pushing out rival chipmakers by adding tax every time phone makers bought chips from rivals and mandating them to pay royalties for standards-essential patents of Qualcomm, even in cases when they were not using Qualcomm product, which made rival products look more expansive.



In May 2019, a US judge ruled that the practice of ‘no-license, no chips’ was anti-competitive, however, in the 9th Circuit Court, the judge completely neglected the verdict, which gave Qualcomm a huge win.



 



Source: https://in.reuters.com/article/qualcomm-antitrust/u-s-antitrust-regulator-loses-bid-to-revive-qualcomm-case-idINKBN27E09X



https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/11/21363629/qualcomm-win-appeal-antitrust-ftc-lawsuit-frand-patents-chips



https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/11/qualcomm-stock-rises-after-appeals-court-tosses-ftc-antitrust-case.html

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Nandita Bhardwaj

Nandita holds a management degree with specialization in marketing, and boasts of a short-term experience in the field of recruitment. Following her passion for writing however, she decided to pursue a career in the field of content development. Presently, Nandita pens down news pieces for newsorigins.com, spanning the verticals of business, finance, and technology.