South Korea says to cooperate with Europe, US on Qualcomm probe

South Korea’s antitrust body said on Wednesday it would cooperate with counterparts in Europe and the United States as part of the regulator’s investigation into U.S. chip maker Qualcomm.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission did not specify what it was investigating Qualcomm for, but the company is facing regulatory probes into alleged anti-competitive practices in several countries and agreed to pay a $975 million fine in China early this year following a 14-month investigation.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission, in a statement, said its officials met counterparts from the European Commission on Monday and agreed to hold “working-level discussions” about the Qualcomm probe. It added that it would also work with the United States and other countries and examine similar cases abroad.

An earlier report points out that Qualcomm has launched a unit in China to help local smartphone makers expand operations in overseas markets. This is part of Qualcomm’s efforts to build strong relationship with China, specially since more than half of Qualcomm’s revenue comes from Chinese customers.

Qualcomm makes a lot of its profits by licensing out its wireless patents. A lot of Chinese phone makers had complained about Qualcomm pricing its technology unfairly, which led to a 15-month long investigation of the US company.

Posted by : Gizmeon