US: FTC says antitrust suit against Qualcomm should continue

The US Federal Trade Commission on Friday defended its antitrust lawsuit from January, saying in a legal filing with the US District Court in San Jose, California, that the court shouldn’t dismiss its complaint against Qualcomm. The group has accused Qualcomm, the world’s biggest mobile chipmaker, of forcing Apple into an exclusive chip deal. Qualcomm maintained a monopoly that extracted high royalty fees and weakened competition, the FTC said. Qualcomm denies the claims and last month asked for a court to dismiss the antitrust suit.

“Qualcomm uses its monopoly power to make [handset manufacturers] pay a royalty overcharge — a tax — when buying modem chips from its competitors,” the FTC said Friday. “Qualcomm further hampers those competitors by denying them the licenses it promised would be available on FRAND terms during standard- setting. And Qualcomm foreclosed its competitors from selling to a uniquely important customer, Apple, for half a decade using exclusive contracts.”

On their own, each of those arguments “present a forceful antitrust case,” the FTC said. “Together, they easily surpass the plausibility threshold at the pleading stage.”

Full Content: Ubergizmo

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