Reuters reported Qualcomm went to court seeking to overturn a €242 million fine imposed by the European Union (EU) in 2019 for selling certain UMTS chipsets for 3G handsets below cost in an attempt to drive rival Icera out of the market.

The news site reported a Qualcomm lawyer told the General Court of the EU the 3G baseband chipsets it sold accounted for 0.7 per cent of the UMTS market and therefore it wasn’t possible for it to exclude rivals.

Reuters added a European Commission (EC) lawyer argued Qualcomm feared Icera’s potential to “become a formidable rival”.

The European Commission (EC) had ruled Qualcomm under-priced the UMTS chipsets in the period from 2009 to 2011 following a lengthy probe. At the time, the US company noted Icera had since exited the sector for unrelated reasons.

Icera is now part of Nvidia.

Qualcomm won an appeal in the same court in 2022 to overturn a €997 million fine imposed by the EC five years ago.