Samsung's move to drop all requests for injunctions against Apple in Europe may not be enough to escape sanctions from the European Commission over the alleged abuse of its standards essential patents. EC Vice President Joaquín Almunia said during a press conference on Thursday in Brussels that his office will continue with its investigation against Samsung and will release a "statement of objections" within the coming weeks.
"Regarding the Apple-Samsung case, we will adopt the statement of objections very soon," Almunia said in response to a journalist question about the ongoing investigation. "I cannot anticipate the day, but just the period—in a very short period of time."
Apple and Samsung have been locked in an ongoing, global legal dispute over smartphone patents since April 2011. Samsung has largely countered Apple's claims that it "blatantly copied" the iPhone and iPad with accusations that Apple infringes its patents related to wireless 3G standards.
However, the patented technologies in question were promised to be licensed under fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. The EC's view—which may be shared by the FTC and DoJ in the US—is that seeking court-ordered injunctions based on standards essential patents is likely a violation of anti-competition laws.
The EC announced an active investigation into Samsung's potential abuses of its FRAND promises earlier this year. Almunia indicated that seeking injunctions was "one of the most important" objections that the Commission had with Samsung's tactics, suggesting it was not the only objection.
"We will continue to investigate this for sure," Almunia said. "We are very happy if these injunctions are withdrawn, but we will continue to investigate abuses which existed, according to our view, in the past."
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