Ericsson has abandoned its four-year battle with Qualcomm over its wireless licensing terms, officially withdrawing its complaint to the European Commission (EC).
“The company (Ericsson) will, however, continue its ongoing dialogue with competition authorities around the world in relation to Qualcomm's licensing practices,” Ericsson said in a statement.
The EC said the because all complainants had been withdrawn, “the commission doesn’t consider it appropriate to invest further resources in this case.”
Ericsson said its decision to withdraw the complaint came after parallel investigations by antitrust authorities in South Korean and Japan had ruled against Qualcomm over the US firm's licensing practices.
“This (the EC complaint) is taking a lot of resources, legal resources, and it's costing us a lot,” an Ericsson spokeswoman said.
The EC launched a probe against Qualcomm in 2005 after Ericsson, Nokia, Broadcom and other companies asked the competition watchdog to examine Qualcomm's royalties and licensing terms.
The complainants alleged that Qualcomm had refused to license patents to chipset competitors “on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms” while “offering lower royalty rates to handset customers who buy chipsets exclusively from Qualcomm”.
Qualcomm settled its legal dispute with Nokia in July last year and with Broadcom in April this year, in combined settlements worth $2.5 billion.