SEOUL, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- A South Korean appeals court on Wednesday upheld the country's anti-trust body decision in 2016 to fine Qualcomm a record 1.03 trillion won (865 million U.S. dollars) for the U.S. chip giant's unfair business practices.
The Seoul High Court rejected Qualcomm's appeal against the penalty imposed by the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) of South Korea, saying the San Diego-based company abused its dominant position and did unfair transaction acts.
The FTC gave a corrective order to and imposed the record fine on Qualcomm in 2016 as the U.S. company refused, or limited, the use of its patents while forcing mobile phone makers to sign a patent contract in return for its supply of chipsets.
The court said the defendant abused its dominant market position by providing unreasonable terms to the chipset makers in light of normal business practices.
It ruled that the defendant abused its transaction dominance to force mobile phone manufacturers to accept unfair transactions while unfairly limiting competition.
Among the 10 corrective orders given by the FTC, the Seoul court said eight orders were legitimate.
According to Yonhap news agency, Qualcomm will seek to appeal the high court decision to the Supreme Court.
