Apple fined for withholding documents in Qualcomm lawsuit

An American judge has fined Apple for not sufficiently cooperating in submitting documents to the Federal Trade Commission. The latter has filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm for abuse of power.

Although Apple is not a party to the lawsuit between the FTC and Qualcomm, the company has been sanctioned by the court. In the chip market abuse case, Apple was required to provide evidence, but failed to provide everything the FTC requested. A judge has now fined Apple $25,000 per day until the documents are released. Incidentally, if Apple fails to deliver the documents before December 29, an even higher fine could be imposed, Bloomberg reports based on court documents.

Apple said it had already submitted more than 2.6 million documents to the FTC before the December 15 deadline. The company therefore does not agree with the fine and will contest it.

In the lawsuit between the FTC and Qualcomm, the latter is accused of abusing its monopoly position in the chip market, which has led to conflicts over the license price; According to the FTC, Qualcomm is charging too high prices. Apple would be excluded from the practice between 2011 and 2016, according to the FTC, because Qualcomm would have realized that if another company did business with Apple, it would gain a stronger market position. By signing an exclusive deal with Apple, Apple has become tied to the company and the competition is less likely to gain market share.

Not only the American watchdog has sued Qualcomm, Apple itself has also done so after a conflict over the license costs. Qualcomm has already been punished by courts in Taiwan and China for abuse of power.