Qualcomm Inc has been notified that Japanese regulators plan to order the US wireless chip maker to stop abusing its market dominance in violation of antitrust laws, an official with the Fair Trade Commission said on Monday.
The commission will cite contracts that give Qualcomm unfair advantages over Japanese cellphone makers, several newspaper reports said.
Some agreements, for example, restrict Japanese companies from filing a complaint even when they believe Qualcomm has infringed on patent rights, the Asahi Shimbun said.
The commission has alerted Qualcomm of its intent but has not officially announced the impending order, said the official, who confirmed the newspaper reports. He asked not to be named because of department policy.
Qualcomm said in a statement it could not comment until it reviews a full translation of the draft order. The company said it plans to file a written response.
“It is important to note that Qualcomm has never seen any of the evidence upon which the [commission] may be relying and has not, until today, even been aware of many of the allegations,” Qualcomm said.
Last week, South Korea’s fair trade regulator slapped California-based Qualcomm with a record 260 billion won (US$208 million) fine over what it said was abuse of market dominance.
The Korea Fair Trade Commission, which had been investigating Qualcomm since 2006, said the company abused its dominant position in code division multiple access (CDMA) cellphone chips by charging higher royalties for companies that used rival chipsets.
It also said Qualcomm favored customers who used its products by offering rebates.
In a statement on Thursday, Qualcomm vowed to fight the decision and called the fine “excessive and unwarranted.”
Qualcomm developed CDMA, a rival standard to the dominant cellular standard GSM, or global system for mobile. The company controls most of the key patents.
CDMA is used in the US, South Korea and Japan.
Qualcomm, which licenses technology for cellphones and manufactures semiconductor chips that run them, earns money by licensing the CDMA technology to other chip makers, handset manufacturers and wireless technology companies.
VIGILANCE: While two of the cases are family members of a nurse, there is no sign of community spread and the source of infection is identifiable, the CECC said The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported four new domestic COVID-19 cases associated with a cluster infection at a Taoyuan hospital. Since the first case was identified on Tuesday last week, five healthcare workers — two doctors and three nurses — at the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Taoyuan General Hospital have tested positive for the virus. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that two of the four new cases are the husband and daughter of a nurse (case No. 863) who had earlier been confirmed to have COVID-19. The husband (case No. 864)
INCURSION: After 13 PLA aircraft flew into Taiwan’s ADIZ, the US Department of State said that China should rather ‘engage in meaningful dialogue’ with Taiwan US President Joe Biden’s administration on Saturday urged China to stop placing military pressure on Taiwan, while calling on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to engage in peaceful dialogue. The statement by the US Department of State was issued after 13 Chinese military aircraft flew into Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Saturday, the highest number observed in a single day this year, the Ministry of National Defense said. The air force scrambled fighter jets to monitor the Chinese aircraft, issuing radio warnings and mobilizing air defense assets until the planes left the ADIZ. The US “notes
CHANGE OF GUARD: Hsiao Bi-khim’s attendance at Joe Biden’s inauguration will come as a boost to those in Taiwan who feared that the new US administration would be less friendly than that of Donald Trump to the nation Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) is to attend US President Joe Biden’s swearing-in ceremony at the US Capitol after she was invited by the US Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, a news release issued by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in the US said last night. The news came as a surprise as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been reticent about the matter, while Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members had accused the Democratic Progressive Party administration of hedging its bets on the Republican Party. Asked about when Hsiao received the invitation, the ministry did not
FAMILY UNIT: The CECC warned that the eldest sister of the latest case, who also has COVID-19, visited Taoyuan’s Chungping evening market on Tuesday and Wednesday The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported a domestic case of COVID-19, associated with a recent cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital, and two imported cases. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the latest case (No. 885) is a woman in her 50s, who is the third daughter of case No. 881, a man in his 90s. The woman is the main caregiver of her elderly father, who had been hospitalized earlier this month and was treated by a nurse (case No. 852) from Monday to Thursday last week, he said, adding that