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 The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's
anti-monopoly regulator which launched a probe of the San
Diego-based company 13 months ago, said the case would be settled
lawfully, according to an online statement.
The notice cited Xu Kunlin, director general of NDRC's anti-monopoly
bureau.
The NDRC also said it had completed its seventh round of discussions
with Qualcomm President Derek Aberle and his team earlier this
month.
Qualcomm will continue to cooperate with the regulator to reach a
settlement, the NDRC statement said. A company spokeswoman could not
immediately be reached for comment.
The regulator provided no indication as to when discussions with the
U.S. chipmaker would resume.
The NDRC said in February that Qualcomm was suspected of
overcharging and abusing its market position in wireless
communication standards.
An imminent decision in the case is expected to force the company to
pay fines potentially exceeding $1 billion and require concessions
that would hurt its highly profitable business of charging licensing
fees on phone chipsets that use its patents.
The NDRC said in August that Qualcomm had expressed its willingness
to improve and correct pricing issues.
At least 30 foreign firms, including Qualcomm, have come under the
scrutiny of China's 2008 anti-monopoly law, which some critics say
is being used to unfairly target non-Chinese companies.
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U.S. President Barack Obama pressed his Chinese counterpart Xi
Jinping during talks in November on the use of Chinese antitrust
policy to limit royalty fees for foreign companies.
While Western business lobbies had criticized China's use of its
antitrust law earlier this year, the elevation of the controversy to
the level of presidential talks indicated that it had become a
centerpiece of commercial friction between the world's two largest
economies.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told Qualcomm Executive Chairman Paul
Jacobs last month that opportunities in China remained far greater
than the challenges, in a meeting on the sidelines of the World
Internet Conference.
Jacobs said the company was having "difficult discussions" with the
regulator to find a "win-win solution".
(Reporting By Matthew Miller and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by
Muralikumar Anantharaman and Edmund Klamann)
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