EU regulators to pay a fraction of legal fees demanded by Qualcomm: Court

EU vs Qualcomm: The General Court of the European Union has ruled that EU regulators are obligated to pay €785,857.54 ($851,634) in legal fees to Qualcomm, significantly less than the €12 million initially sought by the US chipmaker. This decision follows Qualcomm's successful appeal against an antitrust fine issued by the European Commission in 2018.

The court deemed Qualcomm's requested amount of €12 million as "manifestly excessive," citing concerns over the number of hours worked and the hourly rates used in the claim. The company had based its legal bill on the complexity and significance of the case, as well as the extensive work carried out by a team of 19.

The European Commission contested Qualcomm's claim, arguing that the appropriate amount should be €405,315. In its ruling, the court said that legal fees should be justified based on the total number of hours required for the proceedings, regardless of the size of the legal team involved.

The court also criticised Qualcomm for failing to adequately substantiate its claim, noting that hourly rates were not linked to specific tasks and that the amount of research and analysis presented was insufficient to support the sums requested.

Ultimately, the court determined that Qualcomm's legal expenses amounted to €754,190 for law firm Quinn Emanuel and €31,667.54 for economic consultancy Compass Lexecon/FTI. However, it rejected a request for €302,658.10 for legal services provided by law firm Cravath Swaine & Moore, as these were related to documents obtained in US proceedings and subsequently used as evidence in the EU litigation.

(With Reuters inputs)