The case is the end of the road for Qualcomm which has been appealing against the ruling since 2019.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive body and top antitrust enforcer, initially imposed the fine after accusing Qualcomm of engaging in “predatory pricing” to maintain its dominance in the market for 3G baseband chipsets.

The commission argued that Qualcomm sold its products below cost in order to force a competitor, the startup Icera, out of the market nearly a decade earlier.

The court ruled that Qualcomm’s legal arguments were rejected “in their entirety,” except one claim. The court agreed with Qualcomm that the European Commission had not followed proper guidelines for calculating the fine. As a result, the penalty was slightly reduced to 238.7 million euros, but the court upheld the core finding of anticompetitive behaviour.

Despite the ruling, Qualcomm expressed disappointment. The company stated, “We respectfully disagree with the judgment and the Commission’s decision and believe that we have always complied with European competition law.

This case is just one of several legal battles Qualcomm has faced with European regulators. In a separate high-profile decision, the company was fined $1.23 billion for allegedly paying Apple to reduce competition in the mobile chipset market. However, the same General Court overturned that decision in 2022 after Qualcomm’s successful appeal.