The case was based on accusations that Qualcomm had overcharged for the use of technology it owned in the standard behind 3G mobile phone services.
"Essential patent holders should not be able to exploit the extra power they have gained as a result of having technology based on their patent incorporated in the standard," said a statement from the European Commission at the launch of its action in 2007.
The case was launched after complaints by Ericsson, Nokia, Broadcom, Texas Instruments, Panasonic and NEC. The Commission's investigations were into whether or not Qualcomm committed an antitrust breach of the EC Treaty, the document on which the European Union is based. Article 82 of that document contains prohibitions against the abuse of a dominant market position.
The Commission has said, though, that all of those companies had either withdrawn their complaints or indicated their intention to withdraw them and that because of that it was dropping its case.
"All complainants have now withdrawn or indicated their intention to withdraw their complaints, and the Commission has therefore to decide where best to focus its resources and priorities. In view of this, the Commission does not consider it appropriate to invest further resources in this case," a Commission statement said.
The cases was centred on the practice of setting technical standards, which is seen as vital for new technological development.
Competing companies agree on certain technical qualities of future products so that they can work together. The resulting specifications are called 'standards'. Most European mobile telephones all work on other European networks, for example, because they all conform to the GSM standard.
The complaints claimed that Qualcomm effectively held competitors to ransom by charging excessively for the technology it owned that had been included in the standard.
“Standards are established to guide the industry’s technology development and provide a healthy environment for innovation and competition,” said Joe Hubach, General Counsel, Texas Instruments Incorporated said in 2005 when the firms' complaints were first aired. “We believe Qualcomm has abused its licensing position in certain standards and has inhibited legitimate competition. If this conduct goes unchecked, the risk is that consumers in Europe and around the world will pay higher prices for mobile phones and services and have less access to innovative products.”
At that time a Qualcomm statement said that the complaint was "legally meritless".
“This action appears to be nothing more than an attempt by these licensees to renegotiate their licence agreements by seeking governmental intervention,” it said.
"The Qualcomm case has raised important issues about the pricing of technology after its adoption as part of an industry standard," said the Commission this week. "In practice, such assessments may be very complex, and any antitrust enforcer has to be careful about overturning commercial agreements."
"The Commission has investigated whether the royalties that Qualcomm has been charging since its patented technology became part of Europe's 3G standard are unreasonably high. The Commission committed time and resources to this investigation in order to assess a complex body of evidence, but has not as yet reached formal conclusions," it said.
