Qualcomm is being sued by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), after facing similar charges around the world.
FTC Sues Qualcomm
According to Tech Crunch, the FTC filed charges against Qualcomm, accusing the company of anticompetitive tactics. The San Diego-based Snapdragon-maker allegedly attempted to maintain a monopoly in its chip business.
In the statement issued by the commission on Tuesday, Jan. 17, the allegations are detailed, claiming that Qualcomm practiced a "no license, no chips" policy charging elevating licensing fees for patents and forcing smartphone manufacturer companies to pay more for using a competitor's chip.
According to the FTC, other suppliers of semiconductor devices do not impose such conditions. For cell phone makers, the risk of losing access to baseband processors made by Qualcomm it too great to bear because the manufacturer would not be able to sell its phones for use on top cellular networks.
According to The Verge, the lawsuit claims that, relative to how much value they contribute to an overall device, Qualcomm's fees are "disproportionately high." According to the lawsuit, these fees are also too high relative to what competitors charge to use similar technologies. The FTC also says that these added costs hurt the consumers, being passed down to the end price of the products.
Qualcomm response to the charges is that the core of this lawsuit is flawed and the FTC is wrong about all of this. According to the Qualcomm, the company has never withheld chip supply to cell phone manufacturers in order to obtain agreement to unfair or unreasonable licensing terms.
Other Anticompetitive Complaints Against Qualcomm
The FTC complaint is just the latest in a long series of anticompetitive complaints against Qualcomm all over the world. They have resulted in scrutiny in the EU, as well as large fines in China ($975 million) in 2015 and South Korea ($854 million) in December 2016.
