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US: Hytera sues Motorola Solutions for anticompetitive practices

 |  December 5, 2017

Hytera filed suit in federal district court in New Jersey against Motorola Solutions, alleging that Motorola Solutions is engaging in anticompetitive practices that are unlawful under the Sherman and Clayton Acts “by deliberately and actively foreclosing competition in land mobile radio (LMR) communications systems, to reap billions of dollars on sales at inflated prices to US customers.”

The Chinese-based LMR manufacturer alleges that Motorola Solutions is preventing it from competing in the US marketplace with its critical communications products and is maintaining a monopoly and inflated prices by “forcing LMR dealers to drop Hytera’s products, leveraging its dominance of the US public safety market to impede adoption of newer, less expensive technologies… in the US, and engaging in a serial pattern of sham litigation to impede Hytera and interfere with its relationships with dealers and customers.”

Hytera noted that US customers are getting charged more than those in competitive markets outside the US. For example, a P25-compliant radio cost a city in Arizona USD 5,290, nearly five times the price charged in the UK for a comparable product. Hytera’s complaint provides the example of two competing professional digital mobile radio handsets with similar features and functionality, but with a high price difference: Motorola Solutions’ carries a maximum suggested retail price of US$738, against Hytera’s US$440.

Full Content: Telecom Paper

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