EU antitrust regulators will reportedly not be appealing the decision where Qualcomm successfully challenged its €997 million ($991 million) fine that it received in January 2018, after a four-year-long appeals process.
The original fine was issued against Qualcomm for supplying iPhones and iPads in a time period between 2011 and 2016, and paying Apple for the exclusive rights to supply chips for these devices. This was seen to be anti-competitive against other manufacturers such as Intel and the investigation was launched in 2015.
The Luxembourg-based general court found that the European Commission had procedural irregularities during the investigation which affected Qualcomm's right of defence, as a part of its justification for the decision.
There has been a lot of back and forth between Apple and Qualcomm over the years as well, with Apple accusing Qualcomm of violating antitrust laws, specifically the Sherman act, in 2017.
The EU antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager, has been continuing to raise complaints and charges against numerous big tech companies in recent years, the most recent of which is against Apple for its restriction of NFC payments on its devices from third parties, prohibiting the use of Apple Pay and the Wallet app.
Source: Reuters
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