Chipmaking giant Qualcomm is facing yet more accusations that its business practices are unfair and anticompetitive, with Apple filing lawsuits in the U.S. and China.
On Friday, Apple filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court for the Southern District of California alleging that Qualcomm’s practices have cost Apple nearly $1 billion in damages. That complaint came on the heels of two other lawsuits — one seeking more than $145 million in damages — against Qualcomm that Apple filed last week in China.
Qualcomm is also facing allegations of unfair and anticompetitive practices by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The FTC filed a complaint against the chipmaker in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Jan. 17.
‘Dominance through Excessive Royalties’
The complaints center on Qualcomm’s pricing and patent royalty arrangements for its broadband processors that enable mobile phones to connect with cellular networks. Qualcomm’s modem chip design was used to help establish standards for the telecom industry. In return for that standardization, Qualcomm committed to licensing those technologies to other companies on FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) terms.
However, Apple’s complaints contend that Qualcomm is charging it royalties for “technologies they have nothing to do with.” That statement, contained in an email Apple sent to a number of press outlets last week, continued, “The more Apple innovates with unique features such as TouchID, advanced displays, and cameras, to name just a few, the more money Qualcomm collects for no reason and the more expensive it becomes for Apple to fund these innovations.”
Apple said in the email, “Qualcomm built its business on older, legacy, standards but reinforces its dominance through exclusionary tactics and excessive royalties. Despite being just one of over a dozen companies who contributed to basic cellular standards, Qualcomm insists on charging Apple at least five…