Clifford Chance
General Court confirms EC Finding of Qualcomm Predatory Pricing Abuse of Dominance
1 October 2024
On September 18, 2024, the EU General Court (GC) issued its judgment rejecting Qualcomm's arguments to annul a European Commission (EC) decision finding that the company had engaged in predatory pricing of its mobile chipsets (Decision). The judgment confirms and elaborates on key principles of predatory pricing abuses under EU antitrust law. It is open to a further appeal to the EU Court of Justice.
The GC did grant Qualcomm a slight reduction in the fine of 1.4% on account of the EC using a different basis for the calculation of the fine than set out in the EC's fining guidelines and failing to provide Qualcomm an adequate opportunity to address this divergence. The judgment follows the GC's 2022 annulment of an EC decision finding Qualcomm abused its dominant position in LTE chipsets by entering into an agreement with Apple providing for payments conditioned upon Apple buying LTE chipsets exclusively from Qualcomm. In that case, the GC found that the EC had committed procedural errors and failed appropriately to establish effects. The EC opted not to appeal that judgment.
