E.U. Drops Qualcomm Antitrust Probe

BRUSSELS (TheStreet) -- The European Commission closed a two-year investigation against chipmaker Qualcomm(QCOM Quote) after companies that complained dropped their charges.

Companies such as Broadcom(BRCM Quote), Nokia(NOK Quote) and Ericsson(ERIC Quote) claimed that Qualcomm broke agreements among patent holders of third-generation cellphone equipment to keep costs at reasonable levels.

The European Commission began its investigation into Qualcomm's licensing and royalties activities in October 2007.

Ericsson earlier Tuesday said it was withdrawing its complaint to the European Commission regarding Qualcomm's 3G licensing activities.

But it said it will "continue its ongoing dialogue with competition authorities around the world in relation to Qualcomm's licensing practices. Ericsson's goal remains the same: To ensure a robust, enforceable and fair IPR regime for standards, particularly those relating to 3G and 4G wireless technologies."

For its part, the EU said it was still concerned about how technology was priced after it was adopted as an industry standard but couldn't commit the time or resources to "complex" assessments.

"Any antitrust enforcer has to be careful about overturning commercial agreements," it said in a statement. "The commission does not consider it appropriate to invest further resources in this case."

-- Reported by Joseph Woelfel in New York .

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