Samsung Slapped with Antitrust Investigation by European Commission

If anyone thought Samsung's global clashes with Apple were bad, they were probably right, but they might be nothing compared to what the company just got slammed with.

Long story short, the European Commission has launched an antitrust investigation against Samsung.

The goal is to see if the company tried to stifle competition in the European Union and if its ongoing patent battles are against the terms of the irrevocable commitment given in 1998 to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).

Back then, Samsung promised to “license any standard essential patents relating to European mobile telephony standards on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.”

“Article 102 TFEU prohibits the abuse of a dominant position which may affect trade and prevent or restrict competition. The implementation of this provision is defined in the Antitrust Regulation (Council Regulation No 1/2003) which can be applied by the Commission and by the national competition authorities of EU Member States,” said the EC statement.

Samsung already lost in some of its 3G patent suits against Apple and this only makes its situation more disgruntling. Now we'll just have to sit back and watch how everything goes.