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THE EUROPEAN Commission is investigating Qualcomm for possible abusive behaviour in the field of baseband chipsets.
The European Commission has opened two investigations into Qualcomm.
The first looks into whether the chipset supplier “abused a dominant market position by offering financial incentives to customers on condition that they buy the baseband chipsets exclusively or almost exclusively from Qualcomm.” This relates to certain 3G and 4G chipsets.
The second looks at whether Qualcomm charged prices below costs for some of its 3G chipsets, in order to force its competition out of the market, a practice known as predatory pricing.
According to EU Commissioner in charge of competition policy Margrethe Vestager, the EU wants to ensure high tech suppliers compete on the merits of their products, in order to stimulate innovation. This is especially true around the area of Internet-capable mobile devices.
“European consumers increasingly access the internet through mobile devices – therefore it is important that effective competition takes place for the supply of one of the key components of such devices: Baseband chipsets process communication functions in smartphones, tablets and other mobile broadband devices,” the EU stated in its press release.