EU antitrust regulators will not appeal a court ruling scrapping its 997-million-euro ($991 million) fine against Qualcomm, people familiar with the matter said, in a major win for the US chipmaker that ends a long-running saga.
The Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe’s second-highest, in its June judgment was scathing of the European Commission’s handling of the case, saying procedural irregularities had affected Qualcomm’s rights of defence.
Get The Background: Qualcomm Wins Appeals $1B EU Antitrust Fine Over Apple Payments
Judges also invalidated the Commission’s analysis that payments made by Qualcomm to Apple (AAPL.O) were anti-competitive because the regulator had not taken into account all the relevant facts.
It would be very difficult for the EU competition watchdog to win on both counts in an appeal, the people familiar with the matter said.
The judgment was a major setback for EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, who has handed out billion-euro fines to Alphabet unit Google and opened investigations into Amazon, Apple and Facebook owner Meta as part of her crackdown on Big Tech.
Related: Qualcomm Looks To Buy Stake In Arm In IPO
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