Brussels, 01/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - On 1 October 2007 the European Commission decided to open formal anti-trust proceedings against Qualcomm Incorporated, a US chipset manufacturer. The US company is accused by mobile phone manufacturers of abuse of a dominant market position in its licence prices. Qualcomm is a holder of intellectual property (IP) rights in the CDMA and WCDMA standards for mobile telephones, which form part of the 3G (third generation) standard for European mobile phone technology. In a joint press statement, Ericsson, Nokia, Texas Instruments, Broadcom, NEC and Panasonic claim that Qualcomm is demanding “disproportionate and discriminatory royalties for its declared WCDMA essential patents”. This may “impede innovation, and raise the costs of third generation (3G) technology” and is not Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory ("FRAND"), and therefore infringes Article 82 of the EC Treaty on abuse of dominant position. Qualcomm had made a commitment to the latter. Steve Altman, the president of Qualcomm, said that the accusations are “motivated by commercial considerations” of the manufacturers, and that Qualcomm had always respected its commitments and had stimulated innovation and competition in the mobile phone domain. He also underlined the fact that the Commission, without conclusive proof had only opened an in-depth investigation. The Commission's anti-trust investigations are not subject to strict procedural deadlines. (cd)