Qualcomm will team with six large Chinese smartphone OEMs in a “5G Pioneer” initiative to speed “availability of commercial 5G premium tier devices” starting in 2019, the companies said Thursday. Joining are Lenovo, Oppo, Vivo, Wingtech, Xiaomi and ZTE. Through the initiative, Qualcomm expects to be able to supply Chinese manufacturers “with the platform they need to develop premium tier and global 5G commercial devices,” said the announcement.

Qualcomm will appeal the European Commission fining the company $1.23 billion on grounds its now-expired modem chip pricing and supply agreement with Apple violated EU competition law, said the company Wednesday. The EC decision “does not relate to Qualcomm’s licensing business and has no impact on ongoing operations,” it said. “We are confident this agreement did not violate EU competition rules or adversely affect market competition or European consumers,” said Qualcomm General Counsel Don Rosenberg. “We have a strong case for judicial review and we will immediately commence that process.” The company “abused” its “market dominance” in modem chips “by preventing rivals from competing in the market,” said the EC Wednesday. “It did so by making significant payments to a key customer on condition that it would exclusively use Qualcomm chipsets. The issue with such an arrangement is not that the customer receives a short-term price reduction, but that the exclusivity condition denies rivals the possibility to compete.” The “latest episode in the fractious relationship between Apple and Qualcomm appears to have reached new heights” in the $1.23 billion penalty, said David McQueen, ABI research director, in a Wednesday statement. “It comes as a surprise that this level of 'sweetener' has been paid by Qualcomm, as it has solid leadership in the baseband chipset business,” he said of the exclusivity clause. With its market dominance, “did Qualcomm really need to have such a clause with Apple?” he asked.

The European Commission released guidelines Wednesday for implementation of new data protection rules set to start in May. The commission also announced a new online tool to help businesses and the public comply with and benefit from the rules.

AT&T backed FCC proposals to revise international bearer circuit (IBC) regulatory fee tiers for undersea cable capacity and to apply the new tiers to all international terrestrial and satellite capacity. The telco supported "the addition of lower fee tiers for providers with small volumes of IBC capacity," said a filing posted in docket 17-134 Monday on a meeting with Office of Managing Director and International Bureau officials. AT&T noted its concerns about a CenturyLink proposal for a two-tier fee for terrestrial and satellite circuits (see 1801160033). That "would not fairly allocate these fees," given "disparities" in operator circuit volumes "likely to increase as the result of the Commission’s recent decision to apply the IBC regulatory fees to non-common carrier terrestrial circuits," AT&T said, referring to a September order (paragraph 34). It's also concerned about a Submarine Cable Coalition proposal to "replace a significant portion of the IBC fees on non-common carrier submarine cables (or all IBC fees for all cables) with a flat fee on international [Communications Act] Section 214 authorizations," saying "such changes would effectively reverse the Commission’s decisions to provide a competitively neutral IBC fee structure."

Liability protections for third-party online content should be included in the North American Free Trade Agreement, said 55 scholars and groups of various regulatory persuasions in a letter Monday to trade heads of the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The internet was an "obscure electronic network" when NAFTA was negotiated and now is an essential part of the economy, said the Center for Democracy & Technology, Competitive Enterprise Institute, FreedomWorks, New America’s Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, R Street, TechFreedom and others. They urged that a new agreement include immunity provisions like Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects online companies from legal action for content on their sites. Immunity provisions make it easy for startups to launch new services, and advance consumers' free speech rights, the letter said. “The legal exposure of Internet businesses raises vitally important trade issues,” blogged Santa Clara Law professor Eric Goldman, who spearheaded the effort and has been critical of congressional legislation aimed at curbing online sex trafficking that would make exceptions to Section 230 protections (see 1801040050). "New rules on cross-border data flows, non-disclosure requirements for source code and algorithms, and highlighting the role of interoperability mechanisms to transfer data across borders" should be part of a new pact, said Software & Information Industry Association Vice President-Public Policy Mark MacCarthy.

Congress should decide the issues in U.S. v Microsoft​ (see 1710160009), said a brief filed Thursday by lawmakers including Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Chris Coons, D-Del., and Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga. Oral argument will be Feb. 27 in the case involving U.S. law enforcement authority to compel ISPs to disclose electronic information stored outside the country (see 1708010053). The lawmakers argue the court shouldn't interpret federal law to reach overseas but rather let Congress address the issue, which it began examining in the bipartisan International Communications Privacy Act. BSA|The Software Alliance and other industry groups filed an amicus brief Thursday arguing current laws don’t authorize law enforcement warrants for accessing digital evidence stored outside the U.S. The government’s position would subject U.S. companies to conflicting legal obligations among sovereign nations, and open the door to challenges from other nations seeking the same information from U.S. citizens, the brief said. It concurs with the lawmakers’ position that Congress should decide.

Amazon Music Unlimited will be available in Australia and New Zealand starting Feb. 1, said Amazon. Also Wednesday, it began taking orders for the Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Plus in those countries.

CTA, General Electric and nearly 400 companies and trade groups signed a Thursday letter to congressional leadership asking for a quick Generalized System of Preferences program renewal. "The sooner it happens," the sooner "tariffs paid already are refunded," they said after Dec. 31 expiration of GSP, resulting in American employers now paying "over $2 million per day in new import taxes." The U.S. Trade Representative website says "GSP promotes economic development by eliminating duties on thousands of products when imported from one of 120 [of the world's poorest] designated beneficiary countries and territories."

A unilateral decision by ICANN's board to suspend review of domain name stability and security practices could jeopardize the internet body's transparency and accountability, new NTIA Administrator David Redl said in a Dec. 12 letter. Board members announced the action Oct. 28, saying the review "is a critical input for ICANN in service of its mission," but it's "imperative" the community assure itself the Security, Stability and Resiliency Review "is appropriately composed and structured." NTIA accused ICANN of violating its principles of openness and participation. The suspension "appears to have been done with little notice given and no clear rationale provided," NTIA said. ICANN bylaws provide little role for the board in workings of a review team, it said. The U.S. agency said its "concerns are compounded by the fact that the review teams ... are a critical accountability tool in the post [Internet Assigned Numbers Authority] stewardship transition phase of ICANN, something all stakeholders, particularly those in the United States are watching closely." ICANN hasn't yet responded, a spokesman said this week. NTIA's concerns are shared by many ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee members, and the agency expects the multistakeholder community will act, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Kaspersky Lab went to court seeking to reverse the Department of Homeland Security's ban on use of its products in federal IT systems, the company said Monday of its U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia case. "DHS’s actions have caused undue damage to both the company’s reputation in the IT security industry and its sales in the U.S.," Kaspersky said. The firm has been under fire for several months after reports that vulnerabilities in its software enabled the Russian government to breach U.S. federal systems (see 1712060045).