EU drops appeal: Qualcomm finally wins $1 billion antitrust appeal involving supply of Apple iPhone/iPad chips

The European Commission, the EU's antitrust regulator, will not appeal Qualcomm's $1 billion antitrust case because it will be difficult to convince the EU Supreme Court to rule in its favor.

The case began in 2018 when the European Commission announced an antitrust fine of €997 million ($991 million) against Qualcomm. The reason was that Qualcomm paid Apple a huge amount of money to use only its chips, thus shutting out competitors like Intel.

The European Commission said at the time that this anti-competitive behavior by Qualcomm occurred from 2011 to 2016. During that period, Qualcomm paid Apple billions of dollars to use its chips on all iPhones and iPads.

But in June, Europe's second highest court, the General Court of the European Union, overruled the European Commission's ruling, saying the €997 million fine was invalid. Obviously, this is a major blow to EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager. Over the past few years, Vestager has been investigating the antitrust practices of the U.S. tech giant and has issued a series of fines.

The European Commission can appeal the decision of the European General Court to the European Supreme Court, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). But sources familiar with the matter said today that the European Commission will not appeal because it would be difficult to convince the EU Supreme Court to rule in its favor.

After the Qualcomm case is dismissed, Vestager will face her next test on Sept. 14. At that time, the European General Court will rule on Google's Android appeal.

In July 2018, the European Commission announced a €4.34 billion antitrust fine against Google. The European Commission said at the time that Google had made a number of illegal restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile operators since 2011 by virtue of its dominant position in the Internet search market.