SEOUL (Xinhua/APP): South Korea’s top court on Thursday finalized a 1.03 trillion won (about 760 million U.S. dollars) fine imposed by the country’s antitrust regulator on U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm for unfair business practices, according to Yonhap news agency.
The Supreme Court finalized the ruling in favor of the Fair Trade Commission (FTC)’s decision in 2016 that fined the San Diego-based chip maker and its two affiliates for breaching the country’s competition law.
The U.S. company was reportedly accused of abusing its market dominance and forcing mobile phone manufacturers to sign unfair contracts.
The Seoul High Court ruled in 2019 that it was recognized that the U.S. company abused its market dominance by offering unjustifiable conditions to chipset makers and unfairly restricting competition in light of normal trading practices.
The high court noted that it was recognized that the U.S. firm abused its trading advantage to force mobile phone manufacturers to make bad deals that unfairly restricted competition.
