The European Commission’s Vice President for Competition Policy, Joaquín Almunia, has confirmed that it will charge Samsung “very soon” in an antitrust patent case after the Korean electronics giant broke competition rules by filing patent-infringement lawsuits against Apple. Samsung has been under investigation since January for a possible breach of antitrust rules, and earlier this week, it dropped all of its injunction requests against Apple in Europe.
“We will issue a statement of objections very soon,” Almunia told Reuters. This will inform Samsung of the charges raised against it, and it will provide the Galaxy Tab maker with the chance to argue against them or request a hearing.
On Tuesday, Samsung announced out of the blue that it would be dropping all of its injunctions requests against Apple in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. The company insisted its decision was to protect “consumer choice,” but many had suspected that it had other motives — such as trying to avoid the EU’s antitrust case.
This isn’t the end of litigation between Apple and Samsung, however. In addition to these cases in Europe, there are legal battles still ongoing in the United States. Back in August, another case saw Apple awarded $1.05 billion in damages after a jury found Samsung guilty of infringing Apple patents.
Source: Reuters via Yahoo! News
