Qualcomm Loses Fight Against EU Data Demand

Qualcomm lost its fight against a data demand from EU antitrust regulators after Europe’s top court reaffirmed the regulators’ right to see it, in a case that has already landed the company a €242 million (US$292.60 million) fine, reported Reuters.

The ruling by the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) will strengthen the European Commission’s hand in other antitrust investigations.

Qualcomm’s run-ins with the Commission have seen it receive total fines of €1.2 billion in two cases in the last three years for using its market power to thwart rivals including Intel.

Its grievances with the EU competition enforcer date from 2017 when it was told to provide more information in a case in which it was accused of predatory pricing between 2009 and 2011 to squash British phone software maker Icera, subsequently bought by Nvidia.