The European Commission announced, on 24 November, that it will halt its inquiry into US mobile phone parts producer Qualcomm’s alleged abuse of a dominant market position after the complaints were withdrawn. It said in a statement that it did not consider appropriate to invest further resources in the affair.

The Commission indicated that it had spent time and money on the inquiry in order to evaluate a complex body of evidence, but had not reached any formal conclusions, while “all the plaintiffs retracted or announced their intention to retract their complaint,” it explained.

The Commission had opened, on 1 October, formal proceedings against Qualcomm for suspected exploitative practices because of an allegation that it had violated Article 82 of the EC Treaty. Qualcomm holds the intellectual property rights to CDMA (code division multiple access) and WCDMA (wideband code division multiple access) standards applicable to telephone usage. The complaints made to the Commission by phone and chipset manufacturers Ericsson, Nokia, Texas Instruments, Broadcom, NEC and Panasonic had stated the condition and modalities of Qualcomm’s licence were unequal, unreasonable and discriminatory and that they could, as a result, contravene the competition rules of the EC Treaty.

Qualcomm notably settled litigation at the end of April with Broadcom in the United States, accepting to transfer US$891 million over four years. It also came to an amicable agreement with Nokia, which in turn promised to drop its complaint to the European Commission. n