Qualcomm Slapped With $1.2 Billion Fine by EU Anti-Trust Probe

A US-based multinational telecommunications equipment giant has been slapped with a massive fine for striking a multibillion-dollar deal with Apple in order to undercut the competition.

EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager has announced that Qualcomm Inc. paid billions of dollars to Apple so that the latter won’t purchase chips from the competitors of the former.

"This meant that no rival could effectively challenge Qualcomm in this market, no matter how good their products were," Vestager said.

As per the deal made between the two companies in 2011, Qualcomm promised to make sizeable payments to Apple if the latter would only use Qualcomm chipsets for the iPhone and iPad devices, with the agreement being renewed in 2013 until 2016, according to Bloomberg.

These findings came as a result of one of the two anti-trust probes launched by EU against Qualcomm, and culminated in the company being fined $1.2 billion for its transgressions.

This development comes amid a legal battle being waged between Qualcomm and Apple in several courts, while at the same time is attempting to defend against a hostile takeover attempt by its rival Broadcom.