Late last year, Taiwan"s Fair Trade Commission slapped Qualcomm with a 23.4 billion Taiwan dollarfine ($773M USD) over monopoly abuse accusations. The company was accused of using its overwhelming market presence to negotiate more beneficial deals with customers, but it responded saying that the value of the fine was disproportionate to the volume of its business in the country and contested the ruling.
Now, a settlement between the two parties has seemingly been reached, and Qualcomm seems to have avoided the bigger part of the original fine. Rather than the 23.4 billion Taiwan dollars it was originally fined, it will now have to pay just 2.73 billion, which is about $88 million USD.
As part of the settlement, Qualcomm also agreed to renegotiate its deals with Taiwanese customers and stop refusing to supply its chips. The company also vowed to a five-year investment plan in the country which involved the establishment of an operations center. The Taiwan FTC hopes that the agreement will benefit the mobile communications industry.
Qualcomm may have settled one of its disputes with entities around the world, but it"s also been involved in many others, such as the one resulting in another fine from the European Union. It also recently settled another legal feud with Samsung and ended up forming a partnership with the South Korean giant.
Source: Phys.org