antitrust
Bulletins

Broadcom settles FTC charges over its loyalty deals on chip parts

The U.S. said the company used exclusivity agreements to illegally extend its monopoly in the supply of semiconductor components for television and broadband devices.

Broadcom has agreed to stop putting exclusivity deals around its semiconductor components, which help run TV and broadband devices, to settle complaints from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that its agreements violated competition laws.

Under the proposed settlement, which the FTC announced Friday and is now leaving to public comment for 30 days, Broadcom must also stop retaliating against customers who do business with its competitors.

The FTC alleged the company has a monopoly in the markets for those components, and that agreements with at least 10 original equipment manufacturers as well as major service providers illegally maintained that monopoly. The FTC cited AT&T as an example of the service providers.

"By entering exclusivity and loyalty agreements with key customers at two levels of the supply chain, Broadcom created insurmountable barriers for companies trying to compete with Broadcom," the FTC said.

Ben Brody

Ben Brody (@ BenBrodyDC) is a senior reporter at Protocol focusing on how Congress, courts and agencies affect the online world we live in. He formerly covered tech policy and lobbying (including antitrust, Section 230 and privacy) at Bloomberg News, where he previously reported on the influence industry, government ethics and the 2016 presidential election. Before that, Ben covered business news at CNNMoney and AdAge, and all manner of stories in and around New York. He still loves appearing on the New York news radio he grew up with.

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