As you might have heard, Qualcomm is facing an antitrust lawsuit in the US that was brought about by the FTC. However shortly after the suit was filed, Qualcomm requested that the court dismiss it, claiming that the lawsuit had no factual allegations of anticompetitive harm to the company’s rivals.Unfortunately for Qualcomm, the FTC doesn’t quite agree and have since expressed their belief that the lawsuit should not be dismissed. According to the FTC, they claim that Qualcomm is trying to monopolize the market through a “no license-no chips” strategy, in which companies that uses their rivals products are forced to pay a “tax” which are allegedly disguised as royalties on Qualcomm’s standard-essential patents.
The FTC also alleges that Qualcomm abuses their position to coerce companies such as Apple into paying a “royalty overcharge” when purchasing from rival companies, an issue that Apple isn’t too happy about and has since filed their own lawsuit against the company. Interestingly enough the FTC’s belief that the lawsuit should not be dismissed has gained a new supporter in the form of Samsung, who last we heard was apparently not allowed to sell their Exynos chipsets to other smartphone makers due to some kind of agreement with Qualcomm.
In a statement issued by Samsung, “This case presents a simple question: By excluding would-be competitors from making and selling licensed chipsets and cementing its market power by forcing downstream customers to accept onerous licensing terms, has Qualcomm harmed competition? As the Complaint makes clear, the answer is yes–not only does this conduct violate Qualcomm’s FRAND commitments, but it also contravenes the Sherman Act by eliminating competition.”