Qualcomm cleared
Europe doesn't antitrust everyone apparently; as Qualcomm learned on Tuesday it was off the hook when it came to an alleged breach of EC treaty rules on abuse of a dominant market position.
The European Commission had opened antitrust proceedings against Qualcomm on 1 October 2007 based on a purported violation of the now famous Article 82, which still has Intel smarting.
The European Commission said that while it is "committed to fight against illegal behaviour by dominant companies in key innovative sectors like telecoms and IT, when an abuse of their market power would deny consumers the benefits of competition and choice," Qualcomm's case had been a complex one involving various factors.
"The Qualcomm case has raised important issues about the pricing of technology after its adoption as part of an industry standard. In practice, such assessments may be very complex, and any antitrust enforcer has to be careful about overturning commercial agreements," said the Commission in a statement.
For the most part, the EC has been looking into whether the royalties Qualcomm demands, since its patented technology became part of Europe's 3G standard, are unreasonably high. The jury on this, however, is still out, with the Commission saying that despite having committed time and resources to the investigation, it has not yet reached "formal conclusions."
Nevertheless, the statement points out that "all complainants have now withdrawn or indicated their intention to withdraw their complaints," leaving it to the Commission to decide "where best to focus its resources and priorities."
"In view of this, the Commission does not consider it appropriate to invest further resources in this case," the statement concluded.
