Samsung Worries About US Antitrust Laws, Fires Back Against Microsoft

Samsung filed a lawsuit against Microsoft on Thursday, Oct. 30, claiming that they backed out of the business deal due to possible "charges of collusion from antitrust regulators," The Daily Digest News reported.

The South Korean multinational company is currently facing a lawsuit filed by Microsoft in 2011 over "nearly $7 million in interest from delayed patent royalty payments."

However, Samsung claimed that after Microsoft bought out Finnish communication company Nokia, they are no longer bound to honor their agreement with the American software company.

Samsung and its lawyers claimed that Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia is what violated their 2011 deal in the first place, according to Reuters.

The court filing on Thursday stated that in 2011 Samsung agreed to pay Microsoft royalties in exchange for "a patent license covering Samsung's Android phones," that they will develop Windows phones and that they would share confidential information with Microsoft.

Samsung will also have to reach an agreed-upon sales target and in turn, Microsoft would reduce their patent licensing fees.

Samsung also paid Microsoft over a billion dollars in 2013 for patent licenses, and their motion is seeking to invalidate the payment and all further payments made.

Samsung's legal argument claimed that they anticipated problems with US antitrust laws and faced possible "charges of collusion."

Samsung also argued that after Microsoft bought Nokia, it has become a Samsung hardware competitor, the ZDNet claimed. Thus Samsung refused to continue sharing information as doing so would have benefitted one of their rival companies.

"Before Microsoft's merger with Nokia DSB, these provisions between Microsoft, an input supplier, and Samsung, a downstream seller, comported with United States antitrust laws," Samsung said in its court filing.

"No reasonable business would knowingly undertake the risk of contractually obligating itself to coordinate and collaborate with a competitor-particularly, as here, with respect to setting third-party incentives and controlling the 'out of box' experience of a competitor's products."

Microsoft was not worried and said they were "confident that our case is strong and that we will be successful," according to an email sent to GeekWire.

Their Nokia acquisition was approved by antitrust regulators in the US and other countries which will help their case, and that Samsung had no valid grounds to back out of their agreements.