© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The emblem of Qualcomm is seen in the course of the Cellular World Congress in Barcelona, Spain February 27, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Picture
By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Europe’s second highest court docket has stated EU regulators ought to pay 785,857.54 euros ($851,634) of authorized charges for Qualcomm (NASDAQ:), lower than 90% of the 12 million euros sought by the U.S. chipmaker after it gained an enchantment towards an antitrust superb.
The Luxembourg-based Basic Courtroom stated the variety of hours labored and hourly charges utilized in Qualcomm’s declare was “manifestly extreme”.
Qualcomm submitted its authorized invoice to the European Fee in 2022 after the Basic Courtroom backed the U.S. group’s struggle towards a 997 million euro EU antitrust superb issued in 2018 and ordered the regulator to pay Qualcomm’s authorized prices.
The Fee, nonetheless, disputed the 12,041,755.80 euros sought by the corporate, saying the quantity must be 405,315 euros.
Qualcomm stated its authorized invoice was primarily based on the significance and complexity of the case and the amount of labor performed by a crew of 19.
Judges in a ruling dated Feb. 29 posted on the court docket’s web site dismissed the U.S. firm’s arguments, saying courts have been involved solely with the full variety of hours of labor obligatory for the authorized proceedings, regardless of the variety of attorneys concerned within the case.
They stated hourly charges weren’t offered in relation to particular, clearly recognized duties and that the substantial quantity of analysis and evaluation and adduced quite a few paperwork earlier than the court docket was not adequate to substantiate the sums claimed or that the work referring to them was essentially incurred.
“The applicant’s request is insufficiently substantiated and manifestly extreme as regards each the quantities claimed and the numbers of hours and associated hourly charges,” judges stated.
The court docket set the full payment together with bills for regulation agency Quinn Emanuel at 754,190 euros and 31,667.54 euros for financial consultancy Compass Lexecon/FTI.
The case is T‑235/18 DEP Qualcomm vs European Fee.
($1 = 0.9228 euros)
