Övünç Kutlu
January 21, 2017•Update: January 21, 2017
By Ovunc Kutlu
NEW YORK
Apple sued its chip supplier, Qualcomm, for $1 billion Friday, alleging the firm demanded royalties for its technology.
The world's biggest company by market capitalization said Qualcomm "has unfairly insisted on charging royalties for technologies they have nothing to do with.
"The more Apple innovates with unique features such as TouchID, advanced displays, and cameras ... the more money Qualcomm collects for no reason and the more expensive it becomes for Apple to fund these innovations," the California-based giant said in a statement.
"Qualcomm insists on charging Apple at least five times more in payments than all the other cellular patent licensors we have agreements with combined," the statement added.
The lawsuit filed in a federal court in comes three days after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accused Qualcomm of antitrust violations.
"Qualcomm recognized that any competitor that won Apple’s business would become stronger, and used exclusivity to prevent Apple from working with and improving the effectiveness of Qualcomm’s competitors," the FTC said Tuesday in a statement.
The chip maker was also fined 1.03 trillion won ($853 million) in December by the South Korean Fair Trade Commission for alleged antitrust violations.
The South Korean agency argued Qualcomm forced mobile phone companies into unfair licensing deals by signing them into patent license contracts, refused to supply chips to firms that did not accept terms and limited competitors’ access to certain technologies.
Qualcomm said it would appeal the decision in South Korean High Court.
The dominant San Diego-based company manufactures chips that enables cell phones to connect to cellular networks that use CDMA technology.
The firm also receives licensing fees for cell phones that use the technology, including Verizon, the U.S.'s biggest cellular network.
