EU court rules that regulators should pay €786K of legal fees for Qualcomm, not the €12M the company sought after it won an appeal against a 2018 antitrust fine
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters :
Context & Ripple Effects
This cost ruling follows Qualcomm’s successful challenge to the Commission’s 2018 antitrust penalty: the General Court had already sided with Qualcomm and annulled the fine, and regulators later chose not to appeal that annulment. The remaining dispute was therefore over who bears the expense of the litigation, not the underlying conduct.
First-order effects
- EU regulators must reimburse €786,000 of Qualcomm’s legal costs, while Qualcomm absorbs the gap between that award and its €12 million claim.
- The ruling closes a residual financial issue from Qualcomm’s successful appeal without reviving the annulled antitrust fine.
Second-order effects
- The sharply reduced reimbursement limits the Commission’s immediate exposure after an unsuccessful enforcement case, while preserving some cost recovery for a company that defeats a fine.
- For companies challenging EU antitrust decisions, the outcome distinguishes winning on the merits from recovering the full cost of mounting a complex appeal.
Third-order effects
- Alongside the earlier Qualcomm annulment and the later Intel ruling finding insufficient proof for a major fine, the case underscores that large EU competition penalties can face meaningful judicial review of both evidence and procedure.
- If such reversals persist, the Commission may face pressure to make its evidentiary record more resilient before imposing major sanctions; this fee decision alone does not establish a broader change in reimbursement policy.
The trend: EU antitrust enforcement is increasingly shaped not only by headline fines but by courts’ scrutiny of the proof behind them and the litigation costs that follow.