Qualcomm must face shareholder class action over sales practices

A federal choose has dominated that shareholders suing chip maker Qualcomm Inc for allegedly hiding anticompetitive gross sales and licencing practices could deliver their claims as a category motion.

The lawsuit filed in San Diego, California, alleges Qualcomm and its executives repeatedly described its companies of promoting chips and licencing its know-how to different firms as separate, when in actual fact the corporate bundled them in a bid to stifle competitors.

The traders main the case declare the misrepresentations artificially inflated the worth of Qualcomm shares between 2012 and 2017.

Qualcomm has referred to as the allegations meritless.

US district choose Jinsook Ohta rejected Qualcomm’s argument that the gross sales practices have been already publicly recognized.

Qualcomm’s responses to antitrust allegations by regulators revealed “far more detail” in regards to the practices and the shoppers affected, she wrote.

The class covers traders who purchased Qualcomm frequent inventory between Feb. 1, 2012 and Jan. 20, 2017 and incurred losses. Qualcomm paid the Korea Fair Trade Commission 1.03 trillion gained ($912.34 million) in 2017 for what the regulator referred to as unfair business practices in licensing and chip gross sales.

The San Diego-based firm additionally faces a shopper lawsuit in California alleging its practices violated state regulation.

2017 case with Apple

In May 2017, chipmaker Qualcomm Inc escalated its patent battle with Apple Inc, suing Foxconn and three different Taiwanese producers that provide iPhone and iPad parts for not paying royalties.

Apple filed a lawsuit in opposition to Qualcomm in January 2017 accusing it of overcharging for chips and refusing to pay some $1 billion in rebates – a transfer that got here days after the US authorities accused the chipmaker of utilizing anticompetitive techniques to keep up a monopoly over key semiconductors in cell phones.

Qualcomm referred to as Apple’s swimsuit baseless and has stated the iPhone maker was encouraging regulatory assaults on its business.

Qualcomm stated in its criticism that Apple had suggested the 4 contract producers to withhold royalty funds and agreed to indemnify them in opposition to any damages ensuing from the breach of their agreements with Qualcomm.

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