Apple sued Qualcomm today, alleging that the mobile chip giant owes it at least a billion dollars in unpaid rebates and agreements. Apple further states that Qualcomm “attempted to extort Apple into changing its responses and providing false information to the KFTC [Korean FTC] in exchange for Qualcomm’s release of those payments to Apple.”
That’s a bombshell accusation, if true. The Korean FTC recently fined Qualcomm $850 million, but an accusation that Qualcomm may have deliberately attempted to pay other corporations to lie on its behalf could open Qualcomm up to criminal lawsuits and accusations of perjury. China has also fined Qualcomm for its alleged monopolistic abuses and the FTC filed a lawsuit against QC earlier this week.
Apple provided Ars Technica with the following statement:
For many years Qualcomm has unfairly insisted on charging royalties for technologies they have nothing to do with. The more Apple innovates with unique features such as TouchID, advanced displays, and cameras, to name just a few, the more money Qualcomm collects for no reason and the more expensive it becomes for Apple to fund these innovations. Qualcomm built its business on older, legacy standards but reinforces its dominance through exclusionary tactics and excessive royalties. Despite being just one of over a dozen companies who contributed to basic cellular standards, Qualcomm insists on charging Apple at least five times more in payments than all the other cellular patent licensors we have agreements with combined.
