Qualcomm gets Taiwan Ministry of Economic Affairs’ backing

Concern over how the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission handled fine

Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs’ has come down heavily against the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission in the Qualcomm anti-trust case.

For those who came in late, the commission fined Qualcomm f $ 774 million over claims it abused its dominance of cellular chipsets in phones. The company effectively has a monopoly over CDMA, WCDMA (3G) and LTE chipsets, the Commission said, and it refuses to properly license its technology to others.

But while the Ministry of Economic Affairs respects TFTC’s position as the ruling agency. It has called for the watchdog to consider the economic stability and prosperity of the country before sticking the boot in.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) as the government authority in charge of the industry, MOEA would like to see a better coordination between industrial development and fair trading.

MOEA expresses strong and deep concern about the investigation and decision process.

Qualcomm has been a crucial partner to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and semiconductor industries in Taiwan. Qualcomm’s business scope covers the whole mobile communication ecosystem (mobile phones, tablets, notebooks, IoT, networking and telecommunication, infrastructures, telecom carriers, and testing).

According to data from the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute, in 2016, the value of Qualcomm’s orders for Taiwan’s semiconductor and packaging/testing industries reached NT$ 155.7 billion, and they generated a total of NT$ 314.7 billion in revenues for Taiwan’s ICT sector.

The revenue generated by Qualcomm’s orders is expected to grow to NT$ 432.4 billion in 2017. In the future, 5G- and AI-based technologies will expand into sectors such as automobile, healthcare and smart factories.

The ruling fails to take Qualcomm’s contribution to the whole industry and future cooperation opportunities in Taiwan into consideration. The result of the ruling is unfavorable for foreign companies expanded investments in Taiwan in the future, the Ministry said.

There is a huge market potential for 5G and IoT applications. Taiwanese companies have the technology and cost advantages in the global supply chain and are able to complement with major international companies.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs will endeavour to secure the cooperation between Qualcomm and Taiwan’s ICT industry in 5G and IoT technologies under the principles of mutual-beneficial and fair in an effort to maintain the win-win partnership, a spokesman for the Ministry said,