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China: Qualcomm facing $1B in fines as probe ends

By  |  January 12, 2015

After a year of investigation, the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) finalized the investigation of Qualcomm, Chinese media are reporting. Qualcomm, the world’s leading maker of smartphone chips, had been labeled a monopoly in China.

Unnamed sources say the NDRC has finalized its probe of the US-based mobile chip maker, though any fines Qualcomm will receive have not been revealed. Sources say the NDRC is forcing Qualcomm to lower the licensing fees by an undisclosed amount, and that Qualcomm is losing its reverse patent license which gave clients an agreement that other Qualcomm clients could use license patents at no additional cost.

The loss of the reverse patent license is likely to hurt smaller mobile manufacturers in China since they are now forced to pay license fees to the larger manufacturers, reports say.

Earlier reports said Qualcomm could face fines of up to $1 billion.

Full Content: TechinAsia

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