Qualcomm is now facing a consumer lawsuit that after being handed a series of antitrust fines over abuse of power, and is being forced to compensate UK phone owners. The country’s leading consumer association Which? is suing the Snapdragon chip maker to the tune of £482.5 million ($683 million) in damages for allegedly breaching competition law.
Which? claim Qualcomm allegedly used its dominance in the patent-licensing and processor markets by charging fees for its tech licenses, which were forcefully passed on to consumers in form of higher smartphone prices.
Qualcomm has condemned the allegations. “As the plaintiffs are well aware, their claims were effectively put to rest last summer by a unanimous panel of judges at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the United States,” a company spokesman told BBC News.
In Asia alone, it has previously been slapped with antitrust penalties in China, Korea and Taiwan that amounted to over $2.6 billion.
Meanwhile, the European Commission fined it €997 million ($1.23 billion) in 2018 for paying Apple to secure an exclusive modem deal. And again in 2019, when it was struck with a €242 million fine ($271 million at the time) for alleged price dumping on 3G chips.
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