An EU court has overturned a billion-dollar fine for Qualcomm for chips in Apple products

Author:
Oleg Panfilovych
Date:

Chinese processor maker Qualcomm has won a lawsuit against the European Union, which fined the company nearly a billion euros.

This was reported by The Verge.

The fine was imposed in 2018. The European Commission then said that Qualcomm had paid Apple "billions of dollars" from 2011 to 2016 to use only its chips on all iPhones and iPads, and to deprive competitors such as Intel of this opportunity.

The Court of General Jurisdiction of the EU overturned this decision. "Several procedural violations have affected Qualcommʼs rights of defense and invalidate the European Commissionʼs analysis of the conduct alleged against Qualcomm," the judges said.

"The court also concluded that the European Commission did not provide an analysis that would prove that the relevant payments actually reduced Appleʼs incentives to move to Qualcommʼs competitors," the judges added.