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 are the top global risks in trade, finance, and technology as of mid-2023?

Andy Yeh Alpha

2023-05-31 11:27:00 Wednesday ET

What are the top global risks in trade, finance, and technology as of mid-2023?

What are the top global risks in trade, finance, and technology? In this macro report, we focus on the current global risks from inflation and growth con

+See More

Trump imposes tariffs on steel and aluminum in a trade war with some exemptions for Canada and Mexico.

Olivia London

2018-03-01 07:35:00 Thursday ET

Trump imposes tariffs on steel and aluminum in a trade war with some exemptions for Canada and Mexico.

Trump imposes high tariffs on steel (25%) and aluminum (10%) in a new trade war with subsequent exemptions for Canada and Mexico. The Trump administration&#

+See More

Personal finance author William Danko shares 3 top secrets for better wealth creation.

Rose Prince

2018-12-01 11:37:00 Saturday ET

Personal finance author William Danko shares 3 top secrets for better wealth creation.

As the solo author of the books Millionaire Next Door and Richer Than Millionaire, William Danko shares 3 top secrets for *better wealth creation*. True pro

+See More

Former New York Times team journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Charles Duhigg delves into how we can change our lives for the better by mastering our habits from day to day.

Monica McNeil

2025-06-05 00:00:00 Thursday ET

Former New York Times team journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Charles Duhigg delves into how we can change our lives for the better by mastering our habits from day to day.

Former New York Times team journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Charles Duhigg describes, discusses, and delves into how we can change our respective lives

+See More

Macro economic innovations and asset alphas show significant mutual causation.

Olivia London

2023-12-03 11:33:00 Sunday ET

Macro economic innovations and asset alphas show significant mutual causation.

Macro innovations and asset alphas show significant mutual causation. April 2023   This brief article draws from the recent research publicati

+See More

The Federal Reserve proposes softening the Volcker rule that prevents banks from placing risky bets on securities with deposit finance.

James Campbell

2018-05-27 08:33:00 Sunday ET

The Federal Reserve proposes softening the Volcker rule that prevents banks from placing risky bets on securities with deposit finance.

The Federal Reserve proposes softening the Volcker rule that prevents banks from placing risky bets on securities with deposit finance. As part of the po

+See More