EU Commission Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager holds a news conference on Broadcom in Brussels, Belgium October 7, 2020. REUTERS/Yves Herman/Pool
October 7, 2020
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU antitrust enforcers accepted on Wednesday Broadcom’s offer to drop exclusivity deals with TV and modem makers and ended their year-long investigation without a finding of wrongdoing by the U.S. chipmaker.
The EU competition enforcer launched an investigation into the company in June last year and even threatened to issue an interim order, its first in almost two decades, to stop such practices while the probe was ongoing.
Broadcom, which makes chips to power smartphones, computers and networking equipment and is a major supplier to Apple, subsequently offered to end its exclusivity deals.
“Broadcom will suspend all existing agreements containing exclusivity or quasi exclusivity arrangements and/or leveraging provisions concerning Systems-on-a-Chip (SoCs) for TV set-top boxes and Internet modems, and has committed not to enter into new agreements comprising such terms,” the Commission said in a statement.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee)
