The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) announced on March 21 that it has canceled 49 billion won out of 273 billion won in fines levied on Qualcomm, a U.S. telecom chip maker, in December 2009.
In December 2009, the FTC fined Qualcomm 273 billion won for interfering with the entry of competitors by offering rebates on the condition that they use only its products while selling model chips for the second-generation CDMA (code division multiple access) and RF chips for base station communication to mobile phone companies.
Qualcomm filed a lawsuit against it in February 2010, and was effectively ruled against it by the Supreme Court in late January this year. However, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Qualcomm regarding the provision of conditional rebates for RF chips. Qualcomm's provision of RF chip rebates to LG Electronics alone is not effective in entering competitors, and therefore it is not possible to impose fines.
In addition, Qualcomm was fined 1.03 trillion won in 2016 for overusing its power in the process of supplying chips for wireless communications. Qualcomm filed a lawsuit against it in February 2017, and the trial is currently underway.
