South Korea: Qualcomm argues to delay US$910m KFTC fine

Qualcomm on Friday argued over a US$910 million antitrust fine that the company was hit with in South Korea in late 2016, asking the country’s Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) to postpone the enforcement of its sanction until the company’s lawsuit against the order is processed, local media reports.

During a public hearing at the 7th Administrative Division of the Seoul High Court, the San Diego, California-based chipmaker claimed that the Korean government will inflict “irreparable damage” to its operations if it proceeds with enforcing the correction order momentarily, claiming that such a scenario must be avoided as its lawsuit may change the legality of the measure.

The company pleaded for the order to be delayed “for a limited period of time,” with its representatives not giving a more detailed estimate as to when they expect their lawsuit to be processed.

Qualcomm originally started litigation in late February, filing a lawsuit seeking to cancel the order with the Seoul High Court. The sanction itself was issued after the FTC decided that Qualcomm was abusing its dominance in the mobile modem market and bullied a number of companies into paying unfair licensing fees for standard-essential patents. South Korea’s competition watchdog specifically mentioned Samsung Electronics and Apple as being affected by Qualcomm’s patent licensing practices that it concluded were monopolistic and must be corrected.

Full Content: Global Competition Review

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