Daily Management Review

Qualcomm and Taiwan agree to cancel $ 773 million fine


08/13/2018


Qualcomm has reached an agreement with the authorities of Taiwan to abolish decision of the Commission on Fair Trade, the island's main antitrust regulator, which in October 2017 fined the US chip maker by 23.4 billion new Taiwan dollars ($ 773 million).



Maurizio Pesce
Maurizio Pesce
The fine, which was a record for Taiwan, was issued for the illegal restriction of competitors' access to their technologies. Qualcomm, a monopolist in such segments of the chip market as CDMA, WCDMA and LTE, had been violating antitrust laws for at least seven years, collecting during this time 400 billion new Taiwan dollars from local companies in the form of licensing and other payments.

The new agreement supposes cancellation of the fine and holding of new negotiations with the companies "in good faith", while the authorities will have the right to intervene in the negotiation process to solve the problem moments, reports Bloomberg.

Qualcomm also committed to invest an unnamed amount in Taiwan's economy by organizing partnerships to develop 5G technology with local chipmakers and sponsoring research programs of Taiwanese universities.

source: reuters.com