EU Commission Tells Samsung that their Anti-Trust Offer isn't good enough to End its Patent Dispute with Apple
In December 2012 we reported that the European Commission was set to charge Samsung in an antitrust patent case. The EU competition watchdog was investigating whether Samsung broke EU competition rules by filing patent lawsuits against Apple. Samsung could have faced a fine of as much as $18.3 billion or 10 percent of its 2012 revenues. Almost a year later, we reported that the EU Commission was considering Samsung's offer to abstain from seeking injunctions for mobile standard essential patents for a period of five years. At the time we said that Samsung's offer was a joke. It now appears that the EU thinks so too.
News out of Brussels today states that the European Competition Commissioner has stated that Samsung Electronics will likely need to improve its offer to the European Union regulator to address patent issues with rivals such as Apple.
The European Union's antitrust chief told a business conference that "Samsung may have to improve concessions offered two months ago to end an antitrust investigation into its patent dispute with rival Apple."
Joaquín Almunia, VP of the European Commission said the EU's executive arm has market-tested Samsung's commitments and will take account of the feedback when debating possible improvements to the electronics giant's commitments in the coming weeks.
Samsung and Apple are battling each other in courts in more than 10 countries as they vie for control of the lucrative mobile market.
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