Qualcomm loses court bid against EU antitrust authorities’ data demands

Author: Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm lost a court challenge on Tuesday against a demand that it provide EU regulators with data in a long-running antitrust case.

The world doesn’t. 1, the chipmaker has already provided the information after being ordered to pay a daily penalty for withholding it, but the Luxembourg-based General Court’s ruling is expected to strengthen the Commission’s hand in future similar cases.

Qualcomm has been in the EU’s spotlight since 2015, when it was accused of using predatory pricing between 2009 and 2011 to overtake British phone software maker Icer, which was then purchased by Nvidia Corp.

As part of its investigation, the Commission requested additional information from Qualcomm in January 2017.

The company stated that the request was beyond the scope of the investigation and referred the complaint to the General Court.

While waiting for the verdict, however, Qualcomm agreed to the EU’s demand to avoid a daily penalty of 580,000 euros ($655,000) for the delayed response.

On Tuesday, a court in Luxembourg dismissed the company’s lawsuit.

“The Court finds that the scope of the investigation set out in the statement of objections, at the summary hearing on 3 September 2015 and at the hearing on 10 November 2016 was not extended,” the judges said.

They claim that Qualcomm failed to show that the requested data went beyond what was necessary for the investigation.

Last year, the Commission fined Qualcomm €997 million for paying iPhone maker Apple to use only its chips to block competitors, including Intel.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by John Stonestreet)