Asianfin--Qualcomm's attempt to overturn a European Union antitrust penalty was largely unsuccessful on Wednesday, as the EU General Court mostly upheld the fine related to cellphone chipsets.

The European Union’s General Court said it was rejecting most of Qualcomm’s appeal against the 242 million euro ($269 million) fine that the bloc’s regulators issued in 2019, when they accused the company of “predatory pricing” to drive a competitor out of the market.

The fine, originally set for Qualcomm’s alleged abuse of its market dominance in 3G baseband chipsets, was reduced slightly to 238.7 million euros after the court agreed with Qualcomm’s argument that the fine calculation did not fully adhere to the Commission’s guidelines.

The European Commission had claimed that Qualcomm sold chipsets below production cost to drive startup Icera out of the market a decade ago. The court’s decision affirmed that Qualcomm’s other arguments against the penalty were without merit.

Qualcomm said it “respectfully disagrees with the judgment and the Commission’s decision and believes that we have always remained in compliance with European competition law.”

In a related matter, the European Commission had previously fined Qualcomm $1.23 billion for allegedly bribing Apple to suppress competition, but the General Court overturned that decision in 2022 following Qualcomm's appeal.