EU fines Qualcomm for paying Apple to use its microchipsEU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said San Diego-based Qualcomm “illegally shut out rivals from the market” for more than five years by paying key customer Apple not to use chips made by Qualcomm’s competitors. She said the payments were made in part by reducing prices for Apple to buy Qualcomm components on the condition that Apple iPhones and iPads would exclusively use Qualcomm chips. Antitrust: @EU_Commission fines Qualcomm €997 million for abuse of dominant market position in LTE baseband chipsets. — Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) January 24, 2018 Ms Vestager said there were no regulatory repercussions for Apple despite accepting the system for the best part of six years. In a warning to others, she said: “Don’t go there”, adding that the massive fine 997 million euro penalty is meant to be a deterrent.

Source: Irish Independent January 24, 2018 11:48 UTC