Qualcomm to pay huge fine to settle China antitrust case

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – US mobile chip titan Qualcomm will pay nearly a billion dollars to end a long-running antitrust probe in China, the company said, in perhaps the biggest fine ever levied by Beijing in such a case.

Under terms of an agreement with China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Qualcomm will modify its business practices in the country and pay 6.088 billion yuan (around $975 million), the Californiabased chip maker announced.

The agreement will end the commission's investigation into Qualcomm under of China's anti-monopoly law, according to the company.

''We are pleased that the investigation has concluded and believe that our licensing business is now well positioned to fully participate in China's rapidly accelerating adoption of our 3G/4G technology,'' Qualcomm president Derek Aberle said in a release.

The NDRC said the fine was equivalent to eight percent of Qualcomm's 2013 sales in China, as it blasted the US company over its actions.

Qualcomm's business practices ''excluded and restricted market competition, hampered and restrained technical innovation and development, harmed consumers' interests, and violated the country's anti-monopoly law,'' it said in a statement.

The NDRC, one of three Chinese government agencies which handle anti- trust cases, said the company charged '' exorbitant'' licensing fees, bundled sales of patent licenses and attached ''unreasonable'' conditions to sales of chips.

Qualcomm said that as part of the settlement it modified the terms under which it licenses its mobile chip technology in China.

The NDRC has said the investigation – which formally started in November 2013 – was triggered after unnamed industry players complained the firm was abusing its market dominance to charge high prices.