Korea fined Qualcomm ₩1.03 trillion — a record that survived to the Supreme Court

On 28 December 2016, South Korea's competition regulator, the KFTC, fined Qualcomm ₩1.03 trillion — about US$854 million — for abusing its dominant position in the market for modem chipsets and its patent-licensing business. It was the largest penalty the KFTC had ever imposed on a single company.

The regulator found that Qualcomm charged excessive licensing fees for its standard-essential patents and refused to licence those patents to rival chipmakers on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. Because modem makers had no practical alternative to Qualcomm's technology, the practices were deemed an abuse of dominance under Korea's Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act.

Qualcomm rejected the decision and challenged it through the Korean courts, arguing that its licensing model was lawful and that the fine was disproportionate. The case worked its way up through the Seoul High Court as the company sought to overturn the KFTC's finding.

On 13 April 2023, the Supreme Court of Korea finalized the penalty, confirming a redesigned fine of around ₩1 trillion — roughly US$760.8 million. The ruling ended years of litigation and left Qualcomm liable for one of the largest competition fines in Korean history.