E.U. antitrust regulators impose a fine on Qualcomm for advancing its exclusive microchip deal with Apple.

Fiona Sydney

2018-01-17 05:30:00 Wed ET

European Union antitrust regulators impose a fine on Qualcomm for advancing its key exclusive microchip deal with Apple to block out rivals such as Intel and TSMC. The European Commission takes into account Qualcomm's multi-year dominance in the LTE microchip market with rapid mobile broadband connections. In recent times, Qualcomm attempts to force Apple and its Asian upstream suppliers to use its trademark microchips exclusively in return for lower licensing fees.

Qualcomm can thus unfairly cut out intense competition in the LTE chipset market. In fact, Qualcomm pays billions of U.S. dollars to Apple such that it would not buy from other microchip producers.

These payments represent not just price reductions, but the primary condition that Apple would exclusively use Qualcomm's baseband chipsets in all its iPhones and iPads. Several other smart phone rivals such as Lenovo, OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi express an active interest in buying $2 billion Qualcomm chipsets over 3 years. No microchip rivals would be able to effectively challenge Qualcomm in this particular market regardless of product quality improvements.

The European Commission thus has to penalize Qualcomm for its anti-competitive market behavior. This E.U. regulatory decision has deep economic implications for Apple and other mobile device suppliers and manufacturers worldwide.

 


If any of our AYA Analytica financial health memos (FHM), blog posts, ebooks, newsletters, and notifications etc, or any other form of online content curation, involves potential copyright concerns, please feel free to contact us at service@ayafintech.network so that we can remove relevant content in response to any such request within a reasonable time frame.

Blog+More

What is our asset management strategy?

Andy Yeh Alpha

2026-02-28 10:29:00 Saturday ET

What is our asset management strategy?

AYA fintech network platform provides proprietary alpha stock signals and personal finance tools for stock market investors. As of March 2026, we have up

+See More

Timothy Geithner shares his reflections on the post-crisis macro financial stress tests for U.S. banks.

Fiona Sydney

2023-04-07 12:29:00 Friday ET

Timothy Geithner shares his reflections on the post-crisis macro financial stress tests for U.S. banks.

Timothy Geithner shares his reflections on the post-crisis macro financial stress tests for U.S. banks. Timothy Geithner (2014)   Macrofinanci

+See More

Global financial markets suffer as President Trump promises *fire and fury* in response North Korean nuclear ambitions.

Daisy Harvey

2017-08-07 09:39:00 Monday ET

Global financial markets suffer as President Trump promises *fire and fury* in response North Korean nuclear ambitions.

Global financial markets suffer as President Trump promises *fire and fury* in response to the recent report that North Korea has successfully miniaturized

+See More

Today, tech titans continue to reshape and even disrupt global pharmaceutical investments for both better healthspan and longer lifespan.

John Fourier

2026-10-31 12:38:00 Saturday ET

Today, tech titans continue to reshape and even disrupt global pharmaceutical investments for both better healthspan and longer lifespan.

Today tech titans and billionaires continue to reshape global pharmaceutical investments for both better healthspan and longer lifespan. We discuss, desc

+See More

Public sentiment turns quite a bit against Facebook in light of the public issues around fake news.

Apple Boston

2017-12-03 08:37:00 Sunday ET

Public sentiment turns quite a bit against Facebook in light of the public issues around fake news.

Sean Parker, Napster founder and a former investor in Facebook, has become a "conscientious objector" on Facebook. Parker says Facebook explo

+See More

Business leaders often think from a systemic perspective, share bold visions, build great teams, and learn new business models.

Becky Berkman

2020-08-05 08:33:00 Wednesday ET

Business leaders often think from a systemic perspective, share bold visions, build great teams, and learn new business models.

Business leaders often think from a systemic perspective, share bold visions, build great teams, and learn new business models. Peter Senge (2006) &nb

+See More