Reuters: Qualcomm investigation into abuse of power

Qualcomm may have abused its power to thwart Nvidia subsidiary Icera in the competition in the smartphone market. The complaint has been on the European Commission’s desk for four years, but the case will soon be resolved, claims Reuters news agency.

The case is back on the agenda as Intel unsuccessfully sued for abusing its power against AMD. Qualcomm would have done something similar according to competitor and Nvidia subsidiary Icera, Reuters claims. What exactly Qualcomm would have done remains unclear, but the article talks about ‘patent-related incentives’ and ‘pricing that promote exclusion’; presumably, customers who promised not to do business with Icera received a discount from Qualcomm.

The complaint dates back to 2010, when Nvidia had not yet acquired Icera. That only happened in 2011. Qualcomm and Icera are competitors in the mobile market, as both make basebands for processing 2g, 3g and 4g connections. The 2010 complaint is striking, because Qualcomm then did not have the dominant position it has today: at the time many smartphones were equipped with socs from other manufacturers such as Texas Instruments, ST-Ericsson, Marvell and Freescale.

It would be the second time a government has investigated Qualcomm: in June, the Chinese government concluded that Qualcomm owns a monopoly.