BRUSSELS, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Europe's second-top court

largely confirmed on Wednesday an EU antitrust fine imposed on

U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm ( QCOM ), revising it down slightly to

238.7 million euros ($265.5 million) from an initial 242 million

euros.

The European Commission imposed the fine in 2019, saying

that Qualcomm ( QCOM ) sold its chipsets below cost between 2009 and

2011, in a practice known as predatory pricing, to thwart

British phone software maker Icera, which is now part of Nvidia

Corp. ( NVDA )

Qualcomm ( QCOM ) had argued that the 3G baseband chipsets singled

out in the case accounted for just 0.7% of the Universal Mobile

Telecommunications System (UMTS) market and so it was not

possible for it to exclude rivals from the chipset market.

The Court made "a detailed examination of all the pleas put

forward by Qualcomm ( QCOM ), rejecting them all in their entirety, with

the exception of a plea concerning the calculation of the amount

of the fine, which it finds to be well founded in part," the

Luxembourg-based General Court said.

Qualcomm ( QCOM ) can appeal on points of law to the EU Court of

Justice, Europe's highest.

The chipmaker did not immediately reply to an emailed

Reuters request for comment.

The company convinced the same court two years ago to throw

out a 997 million euro antitrust fine handed down in 2018 for

paying billions of dollars to Apple ( AAPL ) from 2011 to 2016

to use only its chips in all its iPhones and iPads in order to

block out rivals such as Intel Corp. ( INTC )

The EU watchdog subsequently declined to appeal the

judgment.

The case is T-671/19 Qualcomm ( QCOM ) v Commission (Qualcomm ( QCOM ) -

predatory pricing).

($1 = 0.8990 euros)