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Apple hit with $145 million fine for WiLan patent infringement
Apple has been hit with yet another patent infringement fine. Canadian patent licensing company WiLan took the tech giant to task over two patents relating to wireless communication within the iPhone. WiLan – which isn't shy about suing the wireless industry over alleged patent violations – has been awarded $145.1 million in damages by a federal jury in California. Apple, naturally, says it plans to appeal the decision. This isn't the first time the two companies have locked horns – in 2013 a jury ruled in favour of Apple in a separate litigation where WiLan sought $248 million in damages.
Why does Google owe the EU $5 billion?
After the better part of three years' investigation, the European Union has announced that it will fine Google €4.34 billion ($5 billion). The company was found to have restricted competition through the use of its dominance in the mobile market. Officials believe that Google's business practices, including using Google Play rules to block manufacturers forking Android, is an abuse of its power. The Commission also believes that financial incentives were used to ensure that they "exclusively pre-install Google search on their devices." The fine is the largest in European Union history, dwarfing the €2.4 billion penalty handed out to Google in 2017. Confused? Let us help you get all caught up.
Google fined $5.04 billion for forcing its apps onto Android phones
Europe has imposed a record-setting €4.3 billion ($5 billion) fine on Google for antitrust violations around its Android smartphone operating system. In 2016, the EU Commission charged Google with forcing mobile network operators to install Chrome, search and other Google apps as the default or exclusive search service on most devices sold in Europe. With a market share of over 80 percent in many countries, that effectively locked others out of the search market, creating a near-monopoly for the search giant.
AT&T will pay $5.25 million fine for 911 outages
The FCC said today that it had settled its investigation into two 911 outages experienced by AT&T customers last year. On March 8th, AT&T wireless phone customers using Voice over LTE weren't able to connect to 911, an issue that lasted around five hours and affected 12,600 people. Then again on May 1st of last year, a second outage, lasting just over 45 minutes, prevented 2,600 911 calls from going through. Planned network changes were the source of the problem, inadvertently interfering with AT&T's 911 call routing. The FCC also said that the company "failed to quickly, clearly and fully notify all affected 911 call centers" following the March outage.
Apple hit with $6.6 million fine in Australia over 'Error 53' fiasco
Australian authorities didn't buy Apple's explanation for the infamous Error 53 message, which bricked a lot of phones in 2016. The country's federal court has slapped the tech giant with a US$6.6 million fine a year after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) filed a lawsuit against it over the phone-bricking error. If you'll recall, Error 53 disabled phones that were previously repaired by third-party companies, even if it was just to replace cracked screens. Apple originally refused to fix the issue and explained that it bricked the devices to protect users from potentially malicious third-party Touch ID sensors. It eventually relented and rolled out a software patch, but the ACCC still proceeded with its lawsuit.
Google could face a massive EU Android competition fine in July
Judgement on Google's ongoing antitrust Android case could be passed as soon as next month, according to people familiar with the issue, and it seems that things aren't looking good for the company. The Financial Times and Politico report that while the size of the potential fine is unclear, it's likely to be higher than the $2.8 billion Google was hit with last year in a separate case, and could be as high as $11 billion, since the European Commission has the power to impose fines up to 10 percent of a business' global turnover.
FCC fines robocall spammer $120 million for illegal spoofing
The FCC has been trying to squash robocalls for quite some time and even adopted a new set of rules aimed at shutting them down late last year. Now, it has slapped one of the biggest robocall operators with a $120 million fine -- the largest amount it has ever imposed -- showing others like him that the agency is determined to take them down. The FCC has given Adrian Abramovich from Miami a massive penalty for being responsible for 96 million robocalls that used a scheme called "neighbor spoofing." This technique masks the real callers' number with a fake one that uses the area code and the first three digits of the recipients' phone number, making them more likely to pick up.
Facebook fined $33 million for failing to help Brazilian authorities
Facebook has had a contentious relationship with Brazilian authorities, and its WhatsApp messenger has suffered multiple service bans for failing to cooperate. Two years ago, a court froze around $6 million of the company's cash after it didn't hand over data for a criminal investigation over drug smuggling. It seems the social media platform still isn't cooperating. Reuters reports that a judge just handed down a 111.7 reais ($33 million) fine regarding Facebook's failure to grant authorities access to messages as part of a health fraud investigation.
Facebook hit with fine in South Korea for limiting user access
South Korea's telecommunications regulator is fining Facebook 396 million won (approximately $396,706) for slowing users' connections in 2016 and 2017. ABC News reports that the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) began investigating Facebook's actions last May and determined that the company had violated a law prohibiting the unnecessary limitation of user access. The problem arose when the social media giant began rerouting some South Korean users' Facebook access to networks in Hong Kong and the US. In some cases that caused connections to slow by as much as 450 percent.
Qualcomm hopes Samsung deal will fix its antitrust woes
Troubled chipmaker Qualcomm has struck a deal with Samsung that may quash its hefty antitrust case in South Korea and ward off a rumoured hostile bid takeover from rival Broadcom. While the exact terms of the deal haven't been disclosed, the new patent cross-licensing agreement stipulates that Samsung "will be withdrawing" its interventions in Qualcomm's appeal against its $854 million fine from the Korean Fair Trade Commission.
EU fines Qualcomm $1.23 billion for abusing Apple partnership
Things just get worse and worse for Qualcomm. The European Commission has fined the company €997 million ($1.23 billion) for "abusing its market dominance" in LTE baseband chipsets. According to the Commission, Qualcomm prevented rivals from competing in the market by making hefty payments to Apple on the condition it wouldn't buy from anywhere else, which is illegal under EU antitrust rules.
Amazon faces record fine from French fraud watchdog
French President Emmanuel Macron recently helped open a new Amazon distribution center in the north of France, but now the retail giant is in the government's doghouse. Economic Minister Bruno Le Maire has filed a complaint against Amazon for abusing its suppliers with one-sided contract clauses, reports Le Parisien. It's seeking a record €10 million fine, "a strong and unprecedented action," the ministry said in a statement.
EU tells tech companies to curb hate speech or face consequences
The European Union (EU) has proposed a raft of new measures to tackle online hate speech, telling social media companies that they can expect legal consequences if they don't get rid of illegal content on their platforms. Despite companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Google pledging to do more to fight racist and violent posts, the European Commission says they're not acting fast enough, and that it's prepared to initiate a rigorous framework to hold them to account.
Intel escapes €1.06bn antitrust fine... for the time being
The highest court in the European Union has ordered a €1.06 billion ($1.4 billion) antitrust fine against Intel be re-examined, heralding a victory for other technology companies currently facing similar investigations from Europe. In 2009, the European Commission found that Intel had "harmed" its rivals by giving incentives to computer makers Dell, Lenovo and HP for using its microprocessor chips instead of those from rival AMD. Intel appealed, but the fine was upheld in 2014.
VW engineer sentenced to 40 months in prison for emissions cheating
Former Volkswagen engineer James Liang is taking the fall for his employers sins. Liang has been sentenced to 40 months in federal prison, and has been ordered to pay a $200,000 fine for his part in the German automaker's deception about diesel emissions. That fine is 10 times the amount prosecutors were seeking, according to Reuters. While his defense argued for house arrest considering he'd only "blindly executed" his marching orders out of "misguided loyalty."
Three fined £1.9 million for weak 999 call handling system
As Britain's telecoms regulator, Ofcom's responsibilities include fining providers for serious service blunders. Three is the latest company to be hit with one of Ofcom's invoices, having been fined £1,890,000 today for failing to appropriately protect customer access to emergency services.
Ofcom fines EE £2.7 million for overcharging customers
Oh dear. Ofcom has caught another mobile carrier failing in its duty to provide decent customer support. The villain this time is EE, after it overcharged more than 30,000 customers for calling its "150" service line. These subscribers had calling while roaming in the EU -- the problem is they were charged £1.20 per minute, rather than EE's promised 19p per minute rate. That "carelessness" and 'negligence," as Ofcom describes it, led to a combined overcharge of £245,700 between July 2014 and 2015. EE is now being fined £2.7 million for the mess, which needs to be paid in 20 working days. Ofcom will then transfer the money to the UK's Treasury.
VW pleads guilty in US emissions scandal, will pay $4.3 billion
Volkswagen has agreed to pay $4.3 billion to settle criminal and civil charges brought by the United States Justice Department over the company's use of emissions-cheating technology in millions of its diesel vehicles sold around the world, the AP reports. As part of the settlement, the company plead guilty to three criminal charges and it will be required to work with an independent monitor for three years. Overall, this is the largest penalty handed down to an automaker in US history.
Australia fines Valve $2.2 million over its Steam refund policy
Australia's federal court has fined Valve AUD$3 million (USD$2.2 million) after ruling that the company breached consumer law when it didn't offer refunds between 2011 and 2014. This is the maximum fine requested by Australia's competition regulator and it's 12 times more than Valve itself suggested it should pay, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Justice James Edelman said he imposed such a harsh penalty because Valve willfully disregarded Australian law.
Vodafone fined £4.6m after PAYG top-up fails
Vodafone has been slapped with a hefty £4.6 million fine after failing to process customer top-ups. UK regulator Ofcom found that 10,452 pay-as-you-go (PAYG) customers weren't given a combined £150,000 in credit between December 2013 and April 2015. The affected users were relying on "E Top-Up" methods, including cash machines, direct debit, and E Top-Up swipe cards. According to Ofcom, the embarrassing snafu occurred after Vodafone changed its internal billing systems in 2010. The company "failed to act quickly enough" to address the problems and only stopped "customers from paying money for nothing" after Ofcom intervened.
