Qualcomm suffers 1.03 trillion won blow from South Korea's antitrust agency

Seoul

SOUTH KOREA'S antitrust regulator slapped a record 1.03 trillion won (S$1.1 billion) fine on Qualcomm Inc for violating antitrust laws, the latest in a string of government actions that threaten the US chipmaker's most profitable business.

The South Korean Fair Trade Commission said on Wednesday that the company licensed its key patents only to mobile-phone makers and didn't properly negotiate the terms of its licenses. The agency also said Qualcomm coerced its customers into signing patent licence contracts when selling its chips used in mobile phones in the country, and it also didn't fairly pay for the use of patents held by other phone makers.

The decision from the home country of Samsung Electronics Co adds to investor concern that the San Diego-based chipmaker, which is also the subject of investigations in the US and Europe, may struggle to defend its lucrative licensing business. Qualcomm gets the majority of profit - US$6.5 billion in its most recent financial year - from selling the right to use technology that's…