Displaying items by tag: compensation

A French consumer rights group said that it has launched a class action lawsuit against US tech giant Google for violating the EU's strict data privacy laws.

Apple and US chipmaker Qualcomm will resume their long-running feud as a new court case between the two titans of American enterprise begins in San Diego next week.

The two companies have been embroiled in a bitter row over patent licensing practices for the best part of two years. Last month, a Californian jury ruled in favour of Qualcomm and awarded the company $31m after it found that Apple’s iPhone 7, 7 Plus, 8 and 8 Plus and X infringed two patents.

Apple has expressed its confidence that this new lawsuit in San Diego will rule in their favour as they seek damages of up to $27bn after accusing its one-time supplier of engaging in patent license practices that amounted to double-dipping.

Qualcomm on the other hand are claiming that the US technology behemoth forced some of it business partners to stop paying the company royalties and is seeking $15bn in damages.

The initial lawsuit was filed by Apple back in 2017, which forced the US chipmaker to counter-sue the iPhone maker and winning bans on the sale of some iPhone models in some markets for patent violations.

Qualcomm charges its customers for the chips themselves and also adds on patent licensing charges. It asks customers to sign an agreement before supplying any products.

Apple has termed this "no licence, no chips" policy a way of charging twice for the same thing. Along with its business partners, Apple is seeking an end to this practice and a refund of something in the region of US$9 billion.

This amount could be tripled if the jury comes to the conclusion that Apple's anti-trust allegations against Qualcomm are correct. Apple claims Qualcomm's practices kept rivals like Intel - from whom Apple is now sourcing chips - from competing in this sector for a long time.

Companies that are on contract with Apple, such as Foxconn, have paid the royalties to Qualcomm and been reimbursed by Apple. But Apple has pushed some of these firms to violate their contracts and deprive Qualcomm of about US$7 billion in royalties, the chip producer claims.

A victory for Apple will not mean much in terms of money but it would destroy a business model that Qualcomm has used with great success for many years.

In the midst of a chaotic period for Samsung Electronics, on October 18, the South Korean company said it would compensate suppliers hit by the decision to scrap its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones because of safety concerns with exploding batteries. Samsung announced that it was discontinuing the Note 7 after a chaotic recall that saw replacement phones also catching fire.

The Galaxy Note 7 recall and discontinuation of the product won’t come cheap. Samsung estimates that the cost of the affair will cost it $5.3 billion in lost profits over the three quarters beginning July. But Samsung’s suppliers will also be hit by the move – those who produce everything from camera modules to casings. Samsung’s suppliers will reportedly lose an estimated $1.7 billion because of the affair.

"We will offer full compensation for remaining inventories of Note 7 components among our suppliers," Samsung said in a statement. "We feel sorry for causing concern among our suppliers due to discontinuation of the Galaxy Note 7...we will complete the compensation quickly to minimize difficulty faced by them," it said.

Samsung’s statement didn’t offer specific figures about its compensation, but said the payout would be calculated to the different suppliers’ inventory volumes. Given the Samsung Group's stature within Asia's fourth-largest economy -- it accounts for around 17 percent of GDP -- the Note 7 debacle has had a national impact, AFP reported. The central Bank of Korea said it had taken the crisis into consideration when it trimmed South Korea's 2017 growth outlook to 2.8 percent last week from its previous 2.9 percent forecast.