Taiwan hits Qualcomm with $773-million antitrust fine

BEIJING: Qualcomm Inc was fined a record NT$23.4 billion ($773 million) by Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission in the latest blow from regulators over the way the US company prices mobile phone chips and patents.

The company has been violating antitrust rules for at least 7 years and Qualcomm collected NT$400 billion in licensing fees from local companies during that time, the Taiwanese regulator said in a statement on its website Wednesday.

The San Diego-based company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Qualcomm has attracted scrutiny from regulators around the world, with it practices probed in South Korea, China, Japan, the EU and elsewhere.

The Taiwanese regulator said Qualcomm has monopoly market status over key mobile phone standards and by not providing products to clients who don’t agree with its conditions, the US company is violating local laws.