BREAKING NEWS: Qualcomm Decision Set To “Upend” Smartphone Industry
In a move that Qualcomm claims could “upend” the smartphone industry and the price of new 5G handset a judge in the USA has ruled that their business model is anti-competitive, the Company has moved to appeal the decision.
Effectively immediately but subject to their appeal Qualcomm is going to have to renegotiate many of its licensing agreements, this is a Company that currently dominates the smartphone handset market with brands such as Apple and Samsung using their technology.
The order comes six-weeks after U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh sided with the Federal Trade Commission and issued a series of injunctions against Qualcomm’s licensing and sales practices.
Koh concluded last night there’s no reason to halt the injunctions while the appeal is pending.
Bloomberg reported that Koh found that Qualcomm’s “no license, no chips” policy unfairly leveraged the company’s market position to force customers to pay inflated prices for chips and royalties for their technology. She ordered the company to end the policy and renegotiate some of its contracts for chips and royalties.
Qualcomm said it will immediately ask San Francisco’s federal appeals court to stay Koh’s May ruling.
The decision not only raises uncertainty over the future of Qualcomm’s business model claims Bloomberg, but it threatens to upend the smartphone industry now in the early stages releasing new 5G mobile technology worldwide.
The order was a shock to Qualcomm and investors who expected a softer touch by Koh after the chipmaker and Apple, struck a settlement in a similar lawsuit less than a month before her opinion.
Instead, Koh described Qualcomm as having” strangled competition…for years” by requiring customers to pay licensing royalties when ordering new mobile phone chips.