Stefan Mileschin

The EU has finished its anti-trust investigation into chipmaker Qualcomm and has decided the company has no case to answer.

European Union antitrust regulators have said that they are not investigating US chipmaker Qualcomm’s patent licensing deals, an EU source said.

The European Commission has been looking into rebates and financial incentives offered by Qualcomm since 2010 to check if it was using these in breach of EU rules to discourage customers from switching to rivals.

British mobile chipmaker Icera, a subsidiary of Qualcomm rival Nvidia moaned to the EU about what it called Qualcomm’s anti-trusty antics.

But the EU said that the way Qualcomm licenses its standard essential patents is not being targeted by the Commission.

The news will be a relief to Qualcomm which paid a $975 million fine to China to end a 14-month investigation. It also agreed to cut its royalty rates on patents used in China and not challenge an antitrust violation finding.

http://www.techeye.net/business/eu-n...omm-anti-trust