The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) announced on September 6 that it is investigating Samsung Electronics for possible abuse of market-dominant position. Apple had sued Samsung back in May regarding its standard patents for 3G mobile telephony.
Samsung is facing a lawsuit at the European Commission for the same patents, too. The EC is currently checking if the Korean handset manufacturer violated its regulations and the Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms during its litigation against Apple. Down the road, the FTC is going to examine the same matter and find out whether Samsung demanded an excessive license fee.
The FTC has already looked into both companies’ market share and influence and overall market conditions based on the compliant submitted by Apple. It is also planning to listen to Samsung before making a judgment late this year.