Qualcomm May Need to Pay USD27 Billion in Fines to Apple Suppliers Next Spring

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(Yicai Global) Dec. 18 — A dispute between two US phone giants Apple and its former software supplier Qualcomm keeps on heating up as other Apple suppliers’ lawsuit against Qualcomm is expected to start the trial process in January in the US. The court could make the chipmaker pay USD27 billion in fines.

The plaintiffs are demanding USD9 billion in compensation for excessive royalties that they have paid on behalf of Apple to Qualcomm for patents related to iPhones released in China, while the court could choose to triple the penalty, Ted Boutrous, who is a lawyer at Los Angeles-based Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, said to Yicai Global in an interview yesterday.

The four Taiwan-based suppliers of Wistron, Hon Hai Precision Industry, Compal Electronics and Pegatron filed an antitrust lawsuit against Qualcomm in July 2017 and stopped paying for the latter’s patents.

The San Diego-based component maker will face three types of lawsuits in the US as early as on Jan. 4, 2019, Boutrous said. First, the Federal Trade Commission is accusing Qualcomm of its allegedly unfair behavior in the States. In April, the case between Qualcomm and Apple suppliers will be heard. Thirdly, 250 million consumers have joined in a class action lawsuit, which may be the largest of its kind in the US history, according to Boutrous.

Qualcomm illegally exploits some technical advantages regarding cellular technologies, and prevents others from competing with itself, Boutrous said. Yicai Global reached out to the chipmaker for a comment but did not receive an immediate reply.

On Dec. 10, Qualcomm said that is has won a preliminary court order in China to ban Cupertino-based Apple from selling older iPhone models that carry its technologies related to image editing and application management. Apple pushed a software update on these products in China yesterday.

Qualcomm considered the fact that Apple has not recalled any of its handsets in China as a breach of the court order, Reuters reported yesterday, citing Don Rosenberg, Qualcomm’s general counsel.

Editor: Emmi Laine