On 24 January 2017, antitrust officials of the European Commission sanctioned Qualcomm –a leader Company in cellphone chips technology- with a penalty of USD $1.2 billion for abuse of its dominant market position.
The penalty was imposed on the ground that financial incentives were paid from Qualcomm to Apple to buy and use solely its cellphone chips in iPhones and iPads between 2011 and 2016. According to the authority, the conduct clearly constitutes abuse of market dominance.
