April 23, 2024

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A Seoul court ruled in favor of South Korea’s antitrust regulator Dec. 4, saying its decision to impose a record fine on US chipmaker Qualcomm was justifiable.

The ruling would be a setback for Qualcomm, which appealed the Fair Trade Commission’s 2016 decision to fine the company 1.03 trillion won ($865 million) for abusing its dominant position in mobile communications markets.

Calling the FTC ruling “unprecedented and insupportable,” Qualcomm took the case to the Seoul High Court in February 2017.

In December 2016, the FTC said the San Diego-based company and its two affiliates breached Korea’s competition law by refusing to offer licenses to chipset manufacturers and demanding high fees for patents used by smartphone makers.

The watchdog also issued a corrective order for the US company not to sign unfavorable terms with customers.

After three years of proceedings, the local court judged that most of the FTC’s corrective order was legitimate.

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)