Qualcomm’s antitrust case fine largely upheld by EU court, with minor cut

The EU’s General Court largely upheld a fine imposed on Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), reducing it to €238.73M from the €242M imposed by the European Commission, or EC.

In 2009, British company Icera filed a complaint with the EC against U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm and the following year the agency began an investigation. In 2012 Nvidia (NVDA), which acquired Icera in May 2011, supplied further information, adding to the complaint and made allegations of predatory pricing against Qualcomm.

The EU antitrust regulator defined the relevant market as slim and integrated baseband chipsets compliant with the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, or UMTS, standard. The Commission found that Qualcomm held a dominant in that market globally, at least between Jan. 1, 2009 and Dec. 31, 2011.

The EC concluded that Qualcomm abused its dominant position by supplying certain quantities of some of its UMTS chipsets to two customers, Huawei and ZTE, below cost prices, with the aim of eliminating Icera, its main competitor at the time, the General Court said in a press release on Wednesday.

Qualcomm had requested the Court to annul or to reduce substantially the amount of the fine.

“In its judgment, the Court makes a detailed examination of all the pleas put forward by Qualcomm, rejecting them all in their entirety, with the exception of a plea concerning the calculation of the amount of the fine, which it finds to be well founded in part,” said the General Court.

The General Court noted that an appeal may be brought before the Court of Justice against its decision within two months and 10 days of notification of the decision.

The Court of Justice of the European Union, or CJEU, consists of two courts — the Court of Justice and the General Court.