Corning, an American glass manufacturer that has been supplying tempered glass products for smartphones, recently reached an agreement with the European Commission, pledging to end its exclusive supply clauses with certain mobile phone brands. This will help resolve the investigation storm triggered by suspected anti-competitive behavior since last year and avoid being fined heavily by the EU.
European CommissionPreviously pointed outCorning is suspected of signing "full purchase agreements" with mobile phone manufacturers, requiring them to almost entirely purchase Corning's Alkali-AS tempered glass products (the common Gorilla Glass on the market) within the European Economic Area, and combining them with discount incentives to exclude other competitors from entering the market, thereby compressing innovation space and raising costs.
To alleviate the concerns of the European Commission, Corning made a series of specific commitments, including completely eliminating the exclusive clauses in existing contracts from now on, no longer requiring any mobile phone brand or glass processing supplier to purchase exclusively from it, and not signing any form of exclusive transaction agreement in the future.
Corning will also be prohibited from requiring partners within the European Economic Area to purchase specific quantities of its products. Corning's market share will also be limited globally, with brands prohibited from requiring them to purchase more than 50% of their total demand.
Corning's commitment will remain in effect for nine years and will be regularly audited by an independent EU-appointed monitoring body to ensure Corning's implementation. This also demonstrates that the EU continues to strengthen its antitrust and market fair competition supervision in the digital and communications technology industries.
Thanks to the agreement reached between Corning and the European Commission, the company was able to successfully exchange its cooperation for no fines, no violations, and no substantive impact on its business, thus avoiding the possibility of a fine of 10% of Corning's global revenue from the EU.
In a follow-up report to Bloomberg NewsResponseCorning stated that the investigation has been successfully resolved and will not affect the development of its Gorilla Glass and other businesses. It also emphasized that it has not caused any substantial impact on its overall operations.
