[Courtesy of Qualcomm]
Qualcomm Inc. has filed an appeal against what it called an "unprecedented and insupportable" decision by South Korea's anti-trust watchdog to impose a record fine of about 900 million US dollars.
The Seoul High Court said Qualcomm came with a request to suspend the execution of a corrective order by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC).
In December last year, Qualcomm was slapped with 1.03 trillion won ($900) for abusing its dominant position in South Korea's mobile communications market. The watchdog accused the company of breaching a competition act by refusing to offer licenses to chipset makers and demanding high fees for patents used by smartphone makers.
The watchdog insisted the US company deserved a hefty fine for a "very serious" violation of anti-trust rules, dismissing Qualcomm's theory that it has followed market practices. Qualcomm hit back, warning that the fine could cause a trade dispute with Washington.
In an earlier statement, Qualcomm said the KFTC's decision reflects "a flawed process and represents a violation of due process rights owed American companies" under a free trade accord between Seoul and Washington.
Qualcomm's executive vice president and general counsel, Don Rosenberg, has accused the watchdog of disregarding the market's "economic realities" and of misapplying "fundamental tenets" of the competition law.
Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
