Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) shares are trading slightly higher in the premarket session following a ruling by the European Union’s General Court. The court upheld a significant portion of the EU’s antitrust fine against Qualcomm, reducing it only slightly from €242 million to €238.7 million ($265.58 million).
The original fine stemmed from a 2014 investigation that found Qualcomm abused its dominant market position between 2009 and 2011. The investigation was triggered by a complaint from British firm Icera, which alleged that Qualcomm engaged in predatory pricing tactics to eliminate competition. The European Commission determined that Qualcomm had supplied certain quantities of its UMTS chipsets to Huawei and ZTE at below-cost prices, aiming to push out Icera, its main competitor at the time. Interestingly, NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) acquired Icera in May 2011.
Despite Qualcomm’s attempts to challenge the fine, arguing procedural irregularities and errors in the Commission’s assessment, the court rejected most of its claims. However, the court did find that the Commission had improperly deviated from its 2006 guidelines when calculating the fine. Consequently, the General Court determined the final fine to be €238.73 million instead of the original €242.042 million.
As of Wednesday’s premarket trading, QCOM shares are up 0.21% to $169.05. This ruling underscores the importance of fair competition and highlights the EU’s commitment to tackling anti-competitive practices in the tech sector.
