©Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The Qualcomm logo is seen during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, February 27, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Europe’s second highest court has ruled that EU regulators should pay 785,857.54 euros ($851,634) in legal costs to Qualcomm (NASDAQ:), less than 10% of the 12 million euros demanded by the US chipmaker after winning an appeal against an antitrust fine.
The Luxembourg Court said the number of hours worked and hourly rates used in Qualcomm’s request were “manifestly excessive”.
Qualcomm submitted its bill to the European Commission in 2022 after the Court supported the US group’s fight against a €997 million EU antitrust fine issued in 2018 and ordered the regulator to pay the Qualcomm’s legal fees.
However, the Commission disputed the sum of 12,041,755.80 euros requested by the company, stating that the amount should be 405,315 euros.
Qualcomm said its legal bill was based on the importance and complexity of the case and the amount of work done by a team of 19 people.
The justices in a February 29 ruling published on the court’s website rejected the American firm’s arguments, saying that courts were only concerned with the total number of hours of work required for legal proceedings, regardless of the number of lawyers involved in the case .
They argued that the hourly rates had not been submitted in relation to specific and clearly identified tasks and that the considerable amount of research and analysis and numerous documents produced before the court were not sufficient to substantiate the sums claimed or that the work relating to them was necessarily supported.
“The appellant’s request is insufficiently motivated and manifestly excessive both as regards the amounts requested and as regards the number of hours and the related hourly rates,” the judges said.
The court set the total amount including expenses for the law firm Quinn Emanuel at 754,190 euros and at 31,667.54 euros for the economic consultancy Compass Lexecon/FTI.
The judges rejected a claim for €302,658.10 for legal services provided by law firm Cravath Swaine & Moore as they involved documents obtained in US proceedings and subsequently produced as evidence in EU litigation.
The case is T‑235/18 DEP Qualcomm v European Commission.
($1 = 0.9228 euros)