Samsung said it will no longer seek sales injunctions on Apple devices in Europe, against a backdrop of pressure from EU and US antitrust regulators for the smartphone industry to scale back its patent disputes.

The South Korean giant said in an emailed statement to various publications that it would withdraw its injunction requests against Apple, which were based on standards-essential patents, “in the interest of protecting consumer choice”.

Samsung’s original injunction requests triggered an EU antitrust investigation into whether the company violated agreements to license standard-essential patents to other phone manufacturers on fair terms. A European Commission spokesman told Reuters that this probe will continue.

The Financial Times understands that the South Korean company is still pursuing legal action against Apple related to other intellectual property issues in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK.

The US judge that oversaw the jury trial which resulted in Samsung being asked to pay $1.05 billion in damages to Apple for infringing design patents, this week denied Apple’s request to ban 26 Samsung devices from sale in the US.

US District Judge Lucy Koh wrote that Apple had not being able to demonstrate sufficiently that the designs covered by the patents Samsung was deemed to have infringed drove consumer demand for smartphones.

Koh also rejected calls by Samsung to hold a new trial after allegations that one of the jurors was favourable to Apple.

Apple’s request for additional damages from Samsung has yet to be ruled on. Apple asked Koh to increase the damages Samsung must pay by $536 million while the latter requested it be reduced by $600 million.