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The
Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe's second-highest, in its
June judgment was scathing of the European Commission's handling
of the case, saying procedural irregularities had affected
Qualcomm's rights of defence.
Judges also invalidated the Commission's analysis that payments
made by Qualcomm to Apple were anti-competitive because the
regulator had not taken into account all the relevant facts.
The judgment was a major setback for EU antitrust chief
Margrethe Vestager who has handed out billion-euro fines to
Alphabet unit Google and opened investigations into Amazon,
Apple and Meta as part of her crackdown on Big Tech.
The European Commission, which can appeal to the EU Court of
Justice (CJEU) on points of law, declined to comment.
The EU competition enforcer in its 2018 decision said Qualcomm
paid billions of dollars to Apple from 2011 to 2016 to use only
its chips in all its iPhones and iPads in order to block out
rivals such as Intel Corp.
Vestager faces her next test on Sept. 14 when the General Court
will rule on Google's challenge against a record
4.34-billion-euro antitrust fine imposed for using its Android
mobile operating system to squeeze out rivals.
($1 = 1.0064 euros)
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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