The EU General Court annuls a €997M fine against a chipmaker and highlights the significance of due process and rights of defence (Qualcomm)

Qualcomm high-profile decision annulled: how the General Court is putting pressure on the Commission to strengthen its demonstration of anticompetitive effects In a long-awaited judgment handed down on 15 June 2022, the General Court struck down the European Commission’s decision issued against Qualcomm in January 2018. The Commission had fined Qualcomm EUR 997 million for anti-competitive foreclosure of rival chipmakers in the market for 4G LTE baseband chipsets, when it agreed to pay Apple more than USD 2 billion on the condition that the latter did not buy other companies’ chips for its iPhones and iPads. This annulment follows on the heels of the General Court’s Intel judgment in January 2022, annulling the Commission’s 2009 decision against Intel based on similar allegations. The