For logistic reasons there are fewer lawyers here than in most of my social circle. Just in case though, I would like your input on the Qualcomm case.
Taiwan Fair Trade Commission fines Qualcomm $700 million for anticompetitive practices.
Then the judge exempts Qualcomm from 95% of the fine if they build two R&D centers in Taiwan.
Qualcomm complies, builds one in 2020 and plans another.
Usually when the guilty party is guilty of something, what the courts have them to is to mitigate whatever they’ve done. I don’t understand how building two R&D centers would accomplish that.
It’s more like saying, “Bad monopolist, bad! Now keep your monopoly and do it over here.”
Just as a general* comment, treating a juridical person (like a company) very differently from a natural person (like a human) is… nothing new.
The key question is whether or not it serves the public interest, which is the kind of question that, if you try to give it a legal answer, will inevitably bring up political questions, like a hydra. Or like the recent SNC Lavalin storm in Canada.
*(not claiming to be a lawyer or familiar with the Qualcomm case)
It’s politics, nothing to do with justice. Formosa Plastics receive 20,000 environmental citations a year and pay none of them. With the president’s blessing.
I worked with Qualcomm quite a bit when I was at tsmc, so I’m hearing this all through Qualcomm folks.
To me, this isn’t different than any other antitrust case out there. Qualcomm did have to follow some sort of guidelines set up by the Taiwan government on a going forward basis to remediate. The sole issue was the fine, which I thought was ridiculous. 1b is a high fine for the entire European Union, Taiwan is saying somehow Qualcomm’s activity in Taiwan is worth 700m in damages? That was nuts to me.
So Qualcomm said instead of the fine of 700m I’ll do you one better and invest billions of dollars in Taiwan. I don’t see how this is a bad thing.
The whole time I was hearing this, I was thinking, man if TSMC ever got investigated… and then the ball started rolling…
Mobile chipmaker Qualcomm Inc will settle an anti-trust case with Taiwanese regulators for about $93 million …
… and has also pledged to invest $700 million in Taiwan over the next five years.
Taiwan government is not just a disinterested intermediary applying antitrust laws to keep the playing field neutral. Taiwan is protecting TSMC, and in doing so is protecting the home field advantage, by forcing Qualcomm to stay in its lane. This suit was sort of a warning shot, telling Qualcomm to behave.
storm in Canada.