Qualcomm pays China hundreds of millions of euros in abuse of power case

Qualcomm may pay hundreds of millions of euros to the Chinese government to settle a case over abuse of power and patent abuse, according to Reuters news agency. Meanwhile, the government itself says that it is close to a solution with Qualcomm.

The Chinese antitrust watchdog has released a statement online saying it is in the final stages of negotiations with the US chipmaker. Reuters reports citing unnamed sources that Qualcomm will pay an amount that may exceed a billion dollars, about 820 million euros. The Chinese government has not yet announced an amount.

This summer, the Chinese antitrust authority concluded that Qualcomm has a monopoly on mobile technologies, which the Chinese government says is asking too much money for licenses. Chinese chip makers such as Huawei probably suffer from this. Qualcomm and the Chinese government have been discussing the issue for months, which has been going on for more than a year.