The court said the EU must pay a fraction of the legal fees sought by Qualcomm

BRUSSELS, March 2 (Reuters) - Europe's second highest court said EU regulators should pay Qualcomm ( QCOM.O ) 785,857.54 euros ($851,634) in legal fees, open a new tab, 10% less than the 12 million euros the U.S. chipmaker paid. Won an appeal against an antitrust fine.

The Luxembourg-based General Court said the hourly and hourly rates claimed by Qualcomm were "manifestly excessive".

Qualcomm submitted its legal bill to the European Commission in 2022 after the General Court upheld the US group's fight against a 997 million euro EU antitrust fine issued in 2018 and ordered the regulator to pay Qualcomm's legal costs.

The Commission, however, opposed the 12,041,755.80 euros sought by the company, saying the amount should be 405,315 euros.

Qualcomm said its legal bill was based on the importance and complexity of the case and the amount of work done by a team of 19 people.

In a ruling posted on the court's website on February 29, the justices rejected the US company's argument, saying the court was concerned with the total work time required for the legal process, regardless of the number of lawyers involved in the case.

They stated that the hourly rates were not presented with specific, clearly identified work and that the amount of research and analysis and the numerous documents adduced before the court were not sufficient to prove the money claimed or that the work related to them was necessarily expended.

"The applicant's request is insufficiently substantiated and is manifestly excessive both in the amount and number of hours claimed and the associated hourly rates," the judges said.

The court set total fees of 754,190 euros for the law firm Quinn Emmanuel and 31,667.54 euros for the economic consultants Compass Lexecon/FTI.

The judges rejected a request for 302,658.10 euros for legal services provided by the law firm Cravath Swain & Moore because these were for documents obtained in US proceedings and subsequently raised as evidence in EU cases.

The case is T‑235/18 DEP Qualcomm v European Commission.