Broadcom Loses Korea Supreme Court Appeal on 18.66B Won Samsung Fine

South Korea's Supreme Court dismissed Broadcom's appeal on Oct. 27, making final an 18.664 billion won ($13.9 million) fine and a corrective order for forcing Samsung Electronics into a long-term parts deal, legal sources told reporters on Nov. 2.

The first division of the court, presided over by Justice Chun Dae-yeop, rejected the appeal of Broadcom's US headquarters, its Korean unit and two other affiliates, according to Seoul Economic Daily. Yonhap reported the news from the same kind of sources, and The Korea Herald wrote that the dismissal leaves the Korea Fair Trade Commission's (KFTC) sanctions in place. None of these reports quotes Broadcom, and Voltgrid found no Broadcom statement on the ruling.

This is a smartphone radio-frequency case, not an AI accelerator case. It still matters to buyers of Broadcom parts, because the court has now confirmed that suspending purchase-order approvals and shipments to win a multi-year volume commitment can be an abuse of bargaining power in Korea. Voltgrid covers Broadcom's AI business separately, such as its $63 billion chip lease for Anthropic.

What the 2020 contract required

Under the agreement signed in March 2020, Samsung committed to buy at least $760 million a year of Broadcom components for three years from 2021, The Korea Herald reported. If its purchases fell short, it had to compensate Broadcom for the gap. Over three years that minimum implies $2.28 billion, by Voltgrid's arithmetic.

The parts were radio-frequency front-end (RFFE) components, which handle wireless signals in smartphones, plus Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips. The KFTC found that Broadcom suspended purchase-order approvals and halted shipments and production to get the deal, according to The Korea Herald and Seoul Economic Daily. Samsung had just launched its Galaxy S20 series and risked production disruption.

Seoul Economic Daily reported that the commission also concluded the arrangement was meant in part to shut out rivals such as Qualcomm. The regulator estimated that the limits on Samsung's choice of components cost it at least $160 million. Samsung says the contract cost it $326.3 million, or about 437.5 billion won. Measured against the $13.9 million fine, Samsung's own figure is about 23 times larger.

Why the fine is 18.6 billion won, not 19.1 billion

The KFTC announced the penalty on Sept. 21, 2023 as 19.1 billion won. The Korea Herald reported then that the commission derived it from about $800 million of Samsung purchases through August 2021, when regulators' intervention ended the deal, plus the upper surcharge rate of 2 percent.

The Supreme Court reports give 18.664 billion won, which Seoul Economic Daily rounds to about 18.7 billion and Yonhap and The Korea Herald shorten to 18.6 billion. None of the reports explains the gap from 19.1 billion won. Asia Business Daily still described the fine as about 19.1 billion won in May 2026. Voltgrid has not found the KFTC's own release or the ruling text, so the cause of the difference is open.

From the KFTC decision to the final ruling

Broadcom told The Register in 2023 that it was disappointed and would appeal, and it took the KFTC to court. On May 13, 2026, the Seoul High Court dismissed all claims by Broadcom and three other companies and ordered them to bear the litigation costs, according to Asia Business Daily. The Korea Herald reported that the court found Broadcom used unusually coercive measures to secure a contract it knew was unfavorable to Samsung and sought to keep Samsung from adopting rival components.

What is not confirmed yet

Broadcom has not commented on the Supreme Court ruling in any report Voltgrid read. The reports also do not say whether Samsung will seek damages, and the full judgment has not been published in the sources reviewed. The date is itself second-hand: the court ruled on Oct. 27, and the first reports came six days later from unnamed legal sources.