Overview

• A five-week hearing begins today at the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London to determine whether Qualcomm held and abused market power.
• The opt-out claim covers roughly 29 million UK buyers of Apple and Samsung phones purchased between 1 October 2015 and 9 January 2024.
• Which? alleges Qualcomm leveraged its position in patent-licensing and chipset markets to charge inflated fees that were passed on to consumers.
• If liability is established, a second trial would examine conduct and quantify damages, estimated at about £480 million or roughly £17 per phone.
• Qualcomm rejects the allegations and has described the case as baseless, and there is no guarantee of any payout.