Supreme Court upholds FTC's 1-trillion-won fine on Qualcomm

Qualcomm Korea's headquarter in Gangnam District, southern Seoul [NEWS1]

The Supreme Court of Korea on Thursday morning ruled in favor of the Fair Trade Commission (FTC)'s fine of over 1 trillion won ($761 million) imposed on Qualcomm in 2016 for unfair business practice.

The FTC had imposed the fine of 1.03 trillion won on the U.S. chipmaker for violating the fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (Frand) agreement and abusing its dominant position in the market to coerce unfair contracts from phone manufacturers. It was the highest fine ever imposed by the agency.

Qualcomm filed an administrative suit against the finance regulator, claiming the measure is unjust.

The Seoul High Court first ruled in favor of the FTC in December 2019.

BY SOHN DONG-JOO [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]