LG Replaces Samsung In The Antitrust Lawsuit Against Qualcomm In Korea

While Qualcomm has had particular success in the recent lawsuit against Apple that resulted in a sales ban on Apple’s older iPhone models in China and Germany, the company itself is facing lawsuits filed by Apple and the US government. Particularly, the lawsuit between FTC and Qualcomm will start on January 4, ruled by Judge Lucy Koh.

In South Korea, things are pretty tough for Qualcomm too. A couple of years ago, the company had to pay a $915 million fine ordered by the Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) for abusing patent. Business Korea reported that the lawsuit was filed by many major technology companies, including Samsung, MediaTek, Huawei, Intel, and Apple. Nevertheless, earlier this year, Samsung dropped the lawsuit after its agreement with Qualcomm to cross-license each other’s patents.

The fact that such a giant tech firm based in South Korea like Samsung decided to drop the antitrust lawsuit could be a blow to the case with KFTC.

But not so fast, another Korean-based tech giant has joined the lawsuit. LG, while having troubles negotiating with Qualcomm, decided to replace Samsung and join with other complainants.

It’s not clear if LG’s purpose when stepping, in this case, is to obtain leverage in its negotiations with Qualcomm. There seems to be no swift of legal decision any time soon, but once LG has presented in the suit, this may help the chances of KFTC.

During the past 14 months, the KFTC and Qualcomm have had a total of 11 hearings as well as interrogations. It looks like no decisions will be made in the next few years.

In the meantime, we can sit back and hear some latest news about the sales ban on Apple’s iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 in Germany. Before the high court imposes the ban, Qualcomm will have to deposit over $1.5 billion. The company was supposed to hand over the cash deposit later this week, but it hasn’t done anything about that. And Apple is still expected to appeal the ban order.