Qualcomm’s Licensing Revenue Plagued by Antitrust Charges
Europe’s antitrust trend in 2015
In the prior parts of this series, we saw that the EC (European Commission) has been actively investigating antitrust cases. In 2015 alone, the EC has filed charges against three US-based companies: Google (GOOG), Facebook (FB), and Qualcomm (QCOM). Further, it has launched investigations into the tax affairs of four US firms: Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Starbucks (SBUX), and McDonald’s (MCD). While some US businesses tend to view these actions as the EU’s (European Union) approach to protect its own countries, European (IEV) officials deny this claim.
Several US-based companies have been probed by the EC for several reasons. As seen from the above chart, many countries in Europe have strict antitrust rules. Let’s look at some of the recent cases.
A privacy watchdog group in Belgium sued Facebook for violating local privacy laws by using its cookie technology to store the data of people who do not have a Facebook account. According to a Belgian court, the company must stop storing such data or pay a fine of $269,000 per day.
The cookie technology gives Facebook two years of access to a person’s Internet device after the individual visits a Facebook page.
The EC is the first antitrust regulator to file charges against Google. In April 2015, the EC charged Google with using its monopolistic position to prioritize its own services in search results, thus diverting traffic away from its competitors. If the company is found guilty, it could face a fine of up to $6 billion or 10% of its annual revenue. The EU is also investigating Google’s Android operating system.
Google’s case would be the biggest for the EU since the Microsoft case that ended in 2004 after the company paid more than $1.7 billion in fines.
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