14 DAY TRIAL // Back in January this year, the US Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against Qualcomm, accusing the world’s biggest chipmaker of forcing Apple into an exclusive chip deal. Qualcomm later denied the claims and asked the court to dismiss the suit last month.
Now, the FTC defended its charges saying that “Qualcomm uses its monopoly power to make [handset manufacturers] pay a royalty overcharge -- a tax -- when buying modem chips from its competitors,” according to a report.
Qualcomm denied smartphone makers licenses that it previously promised would be available on FRAND terms. In addition, the FTC says that “Qualcomm foreclosed its competitors from selling to a uniquely important customer, Apple, for half a decade using exclusive contracts.” Therefore, the FTC stated that the court shouldn’t accept Qualcomm’s request to dismiss the suit, which was filed back in January.
Samsung claims Qualcomm blocked sales of Exynos chips
A number of companies are backing the suit, including Apple, Samsung and Intel. Apple revealed that Qualcomm forced the company into an exclusive deal for purchasing only Qualcomm chips, which is stated in Apple’s version of the Transition Agreement.
Qualcomm denied the claims, saying that the agreement didn’t block Apple from purchasing chips from other companies. As part of the feud, Qualcomm recently filed an injunction against Apple’s iPhones being imported and even sold in the US, after Apple stopped paying royalties to contract manufacturers for phone patents owned by Qualcomm.
Samsung and Intel filed an amicus brief in support of the FTC, while the South Korean smartphone maker says that Qualcomm limited Samsung from selling licensed Exynos chipsets to other companies and thus furthering its ambitions of incorporating Exynos chips in smartphones other than Samsung.
Intel claims that Qualcomm’s business agreements put the company’s “commercial success at risk and will do so in the future.” Qualcomm seems to face legal attacks from all sides and it remains to be seen how this whole matter will be solved in court, but surely some time will pass until a resolution is found.