Fu Yun Chi
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Europe’s second highest court said EU regulators must pay 785,857.54 euros ($851,634) in legal costs to Qualcomm (NASDAQ:), less than 10% of the 12 million euros the U.S. manufacturer is seeking chips after he won an appeal against an antitrust fine.
The Luxembourg General Court said the number of hours worked and hourly rates used in Qualcomm’s claim were “manifestly excessive.”
Qualcomm submitted its legal bill to the European Commission in 2022 after the General Court backed the US group’s fight against a €997 million EU antitrust fine imposed in 2018 and ordered the regulator to pay Qualcomm’s legal costs.
The Commission, however, disputed the company’s claim of €12,041,755.80, saying that the amount should be €405,315.
Qualcomm said its legal bill was based on the importance and complexity of the case, as well as the amount of work performed by the 19-person team.
The judges, in a Feb. 29 ruling posted on the court’s website, rejected the U.S. company’s arguments, saying courts are concerned only with the total number of hours required for a trial, regardless of the number of lawyers involved in the case.
They stated that the hourly rates were not presented in relation to specific, clearly defined tasks and that the significant amount of research and analysis, as well as the numerous documents submitted to the court, were insufficient to substantiate the amounts claimed or that the work associated with them was necessarily performed.
“The applicant’s claim is insufficiently substantiated and manifestly excessive both in terms of the amounts claimed and the number of hours and corresponding hourly rates,” the judges said.
The court set the total fees, including costs, of the law firm Quinn Emanuel at €754,190 and €31,667.54 for economic advice to Compass Lexecon/FTI.
The judges rejected a request for €302,658.10 for legal services provided by law firm Cravath Swaine & Moore as they related to documents obtained in US proceedings and subsequently introduced as evidence in EU proceedings.
The case is T‑235/18 DEP Qualcomm v. European Commission.
($1 = 0.9228 euros)