China anti-trust fines cross $1 bn in 2015; foreign firms hammered

China has imposed a hefty <g data-gr-id="13">anti-trust</g> fine of $1 billion on 10 industries, including Audi and Qualcomm, this year, the country’s economic planner said on Thursday. 

The National Development and Reform Commission imposed a record fine of 6.09 billion yuan on mobile chip maker Qualcomm following an anti-trust probe, the largest anti-trust fine in China’s history, said Li Pumin, secretary general with the NDRC. 

Qualcomm was found to have abused its market dominance, charging discriminatory fees in the Chinese market when licensing mobile chip technology. Chrysler, Audi and 12 Japanese companies were also fined after anti-trust investigations last year. China’s anti-trust work has made much progress since 2015 and a sound market environment of fair competition has been effectively maintained, Li said.