Tech giant Qualcomm fined £872m over illegal Apple payments...

Smartphone hardware manufacturer Qualcomm has been fined by the EU for "paying billions of dollars" to stop Apple going to rivals.

Smartphone chip manufacturer Qualcomm has been fined £872m (€997m) for paying Apple to turn down offers from rivals.

The fine, which represents almost 5% of the technology company's revenue over the last year, was announced by European Union competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Wednesday.

She said the company's deal with Apple in 2011 saw it promise to pay billions of US dollars on the condition the iPhone maker exclusively used components that it manufactured, rather than those developed by others.

"This meant that no rival could effectively challenge Qualcomm in this market, no matter how good their products were," Ms Vestager said.

There was no evidence of Apple bearing any responsibility for the deal, she told reporters in Brussels.