US wireless telecommunications company Qualcomm is being investigated in South Korea for alleged anticompetitive practices, officials, quoted by a UPI Business news report, said.
The exact nature of the investigation was not made public, the UPI report said.
The report said rival businesses in Japan, Europe and the US accuse the research-and-development company of abusing its market dominance in wireless technology to demand excessive royalties and block fair competition, The New York Times reported.
Qualcomm develops CDMA, a rival to the global system for mobile communications, or GSM, technology. It makes money by selling cell phone chips. It also collects royalties for licensing its technology to other chip makers and cell phone manufacturers.
The South Korean task force investigating Qualcomm is modeled after one investigating antitrust complaints against Microsoft, officials said.
Qualcomm had no immediate comment, the UPI report further said.