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

Facebook introduces a new cryptocurrency Libra as a fresh medium of exchange for e-commerce.

Dan Rochefort

2019-07-21 09:37:00 Sunday ET

Facebook introduces a new cryptocurrency Libra as a fresh medium of exchange for e-commerce.

Facebook introduces a new cryptocurrency Libra as a fresh medium of exchange for e-commerce. Libra will be available to all the 2 billion active users on Fa

+See More

U.S. Treasury officially designates China a key currency manipulator in the broader context of Sino-American trade dispute resolution.

Becky Berkman

2019-09-15 14:35:00 Sunday ET

U.S. Treasury officially designates China a key currency manipulator in the broader context of Sino-American trade dispute resolution.

U.S. Treasury officially designates China a key currency manipulator in the broader context of Sino-American trade dispute resolution. The U.S. Treasury cla

+See More

IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath predicts no global recession with key downside risks at this delicate moment.

Charlene Vos

2019-04-29 08:35:00 Monday ET

IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath predicts no global recession with key downside risks at this delicate moment.

IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath predicts no global recession with key downside risks at this delicate moment. First, trade tensions remain one of the key

+See More

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon views wealth inequality as a major economic problem in America.

Monica McNeil

2019-12-19 14:43:00 Thursday ET

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon views wealth inequality as a major economic problem in America.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon views wealth inequality as a major economic problem in America. Dimon now warns that the rich Americans have been getting wea

+See More

The finance ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan team up against U.S. President Trump at the G7 forum.

Jonah Whanau

2018-06-02 09:35:00 Saturday ET

The finance ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan team up against U.S. President Trump at the G7 forum.

The finance ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan team up against U.S. President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchi

+See More

Eric Posner and Glen Weyl propose radical reforms to resolve key market design problems for better democracy and globalization.

Chanel Holden

2023-02-14 09:31:00 Tuesday ET

Eric Posner and Glen Weyl propose radical reforms to resolve key market design problems for better democracy and globalization.

Eric Posner and Glen Weyl propose radical reforms to resolve key market design problems for better democracy and globalization. Eric Posner and Glen Weyl

+See More