In a standoff with Arm, Qualcomm has appealed to antitrust authorities in three regions at once

A long-standing client of the British developer of processor architectures Arm, the American supplier of processors Qualcomm, has accumulated many claims against its partner, and now it is going to defend its interests with the participation of antitrust authorities of the USA, EU and South Korea. The start of the new campaign was reported by the Bloomberg agency.

Image source: Qualcomm

Qualcomm is keeping a low profile, preferring to hold confidential talks with regulators and file complaints about Arm’s actions through internal channels, but Bloomberg sources have learned that the company is working with antitrust authorities on three continents. According to Qualcomm, Arm has begun to hinder free competition by restricting access to its developments after maintaining the principle of openness for more than 20 years.

Arm has managed to build a strong customer dependency on its technology through an open licensing model, and in the early stages this approach contributed to the rapid development of the industry. Now, according to Qualcomm, free competition is under threat, since Arm is allegedly trying to restrict access to its technology in light of its intentions to launch production of its own processors. This became known after studying confidential documents submitted by Qualcomm to antitrust authorities in several regions.

Representatives of the interested parties did not comment on this publication by Bloomberg, and only Arm expressed confidence in its rightness and victory in any legal battles. According to it, Qualcomm is trying to distract the authorities from the commercial dispute between the companies with its actions in order to obtain a certain benefit for business.

Qualcomm recently managed to prove its case in court regarding the purchase of the Nuvia startup, whose developments it then used to release Arm-compatible Snapdragon X processors for PCs. Arm representatives intend to appeal this court decision, but for now they have to go through the mediation procedure at the request of the judge. If they fail to reach an agreement, both companies may be drawn into a trial that lasts for years. In the EU jurisdiction, Qualcomm has already filed a lawsuit against Arm, accusing it of restricting potential competitors’ access to its developments amid preparations for the launch of processors under its own brand. Arm is currently studying the case materials and preparing to give its response to Qualcomm’s claims. Qualcomm has already shared similar arguments with American and South Korean antitrust authorities. Qualcomm itself also has to deal with claims from antitrust authorities, but the company has so far been able to challenge most of them.