이 누리집은 대한민국 공식 전자정부 누리집입니다.
Biz News Korea(Eng)
S. Korean antitrust watchdog warns Qualcomm of record fine for licensing excess
- Collected
- 2016.07.16
- Distributed
- 2016.07.18
- Source
- Go Direct
이미지 확대The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) will make a final decision soon and plans to reach a settlement with the U.S. company within the year, according to government sources.
In November last year, the antitrust agency sent the U.S. chipset giant Case Examiner’s Report charging the company of abuse of its dominant position and other unfair profiteering practices warning of a maximum fine of 1 trillion won if the practices are not fixed.
A senior government official said the KFTC plans to take strong action to ease the pains for local companies that must accept unfair contract terms from the U.S. company for use of the original technology even if the fine may not go to the maximum rate.
The chipset giant has been under fire from regulators around the world for abusing its licensing right to profit from smartphone makers. The company charges fees for licensing on device level instead of a chipset, pocketing over 1 trillion won from such pricing system.
Qualcomm, however, maintains that Korean set makers have profited from its licensing norm through patent access to an entire device.
But the U.S. chip giant nevertheless last year agreed to pay record $975 million fine to Chinese antitrust regulators. Korea won’t be able to charge so much as Korea takes up 16 percent of Qualcomm’s overseas revenue compared with China’s 53 percent.
By Na Hyun-joon
[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]