The investigation of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against Qualcomm was initiated under President Obama in 2017, the court of appeal later rejected the claims against the developer of mobile processors, and the current leadership of the Commission simply decided not to challenge this decision in a higher court. In fact, this puts an end to the persecution of Qualcomm by the US authorities.

Image source: Qualcomm Technologies

The current FTC chairman Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, Bloomberg said, shares the views in the original lawsuit, but believes the Commission would have faced significant obstacles in trying to challenge the appeal court’s ruling, which sided with Qualcomm. Initially, the US antitrust authorities accused the corporation of abusing its position in the market in terms of the business model of licensing its own developments. Every smartphone and mobile processor manufacturer is forced to pay royalties to Qualcomm, and these funds form a significant portion of the company’s profits, although revenue is dominated by funds from the sale of its own mobile processors.

The head of the FTC also said that right now, government agencies should help large corporations comply with antitrust laws. Qualcomm expressed its satisfaction with the FTC’s decision to refrain from challenging the appellate verdict in the US Supreme Court. After the FTC filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm, the Commission began antitrust investigations against Facebook and Google, also accusing them of abuse of their market position.