Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: EC’s Almunia discloses Samsung commitments to address abuse of dominance concerns, (Sep 27, 2013)

By Jeffrey May, J.D.

Samsung Electronics has proposed a number of commitments to resolve European Commission (EC) concerns that the company violated EC competition rules by seeking injunctions against Apple on the basis of alleged infringements of its mobile phone standard-essential patents (SEPs), Joaquin Almunia, Vice President of the European Commission (EC) responsible for Competition Policy, announced today in a speech delivered at the Fordham Competition Law Institutes 40th annual international antitrust law and policy conference. The EC will formally market test the proposed commitments with other market participants in the coming weeks.

Samsung’s settlement proposal comes after lengthy discussions. Last December, the EC announced that it had sent a Statement of Objections to Samsung in December 2012. The EC took the preliminary view that Samsung’s conducted in seeking injunctive relief in EC member states amounted to an abuse of dominance. According to the EC, Samsung sought the injunctive relief, even though it gave a commitment that it would license the patents which it had declared essential to a mobile and wireless standard on Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms, and the potential licensee, Apple, was willing to negotiate a FRAND licence for the SEPs.

In his remarks, Almunia said that if commitments are determined to be satisfactory, a commitment decision will follow. The commitment decision should “bring clarity on SEPs and injunctions across the industry,” he added.

International Cooperation.

Almunia also noted that the U.S. and European antitrust authorities have a “common approach” to the so-called “patent wars” among smartphone manufacturers and the way injunctions are used against competitors.

While some conduct, such as exploitative practices including unfair or excessive pricing, might be subject to challenge in Europe but not in the United States, the agencies “often investigate the same problems, apply similar analyses and find similar remedies.” Almunia pledged to “continue to exchange views, coordinate work on the cases of common interest, and push cooperation towards ever higher levels.”

Companies: Samsung Electronics Co.

News: Antitrust