The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered a probe against Sweden-based Ericsson for charging high royalty on GSM technology patents. This comes after a tablet distributer, iBall, alleged that Ericsson was misusing its dominant position in the market by charging unfair and discriminatory royalty.
According to CCI, it is apparent that prima facie, Ericsson is dominant in the market of GSM and telecom technology standards in India and holds large number of such patents. Ericsson has 33,000 patents to its credit, with 400 of these granted in India. It was also the largest holder of Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) for mobile communications technologies like 2G, 3G and 4G. The Commission has noted that since Ericsson held these SEPs and there was no other alternate technology in the market, the telecom equipment firm holds complete dominance in the market.
CCI has also stated that it has received evidence that the practices adopted by the Ericsson were discriminatory as well as contrary to fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.
