South Korea Upholds 18.664 Billion Won Fine Against Broadcom Subsidiaries
Key Facts
South Korea’s Supreme Court unanimously rejected appeals by 4 Broadcom subsidiaries on October 27, 2026, making the corrective order and fine in the case final, according to a BizHankook report. The fine amounted to 18.664 billion won, the same report said. The ruling concerns a supply contract that required Samsung to buy components from Broadcom above an annual minimum, at a time when the Korean company relied on those components in its phones. The case ended with the fine and corrective order upheld after appeals to the Supreme Court. The ruling brings the dispute to a close in the Korean courts, while the contract details and supply suspension provide its commercial backdrop.
The contract required Samsung to buy at least $760 million of Broadcom components annually for 3 years starting in 2021, with compensation for any shortfall against the agreed quantity, according to BizHankook. But the contract ended early in August 2021. Samsung had bought $780 million worth of components to meet its obligations by the time the contract ended, the report said. The actual commitment therefore covered a shorter period than the 3 years specified in the contract, while the value of purchases exceeded the annual minimum set out in it. The case centers on components used in smartphones, not an unspecified general supply.
The components at issue included radio-frequency front-end modules, as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity components, according to a BizHankook report. In 2019, Broadcom accounted for about 90% of Samsung’s purchases of the relevant components. Samsung’s usual inventory of these components was enough for 2 to 4 weeks, while supplying a new order could take 12 weeks or more. The gap between inventory coverage and delivery time shows the pressure that a supply stoppage could create for a factory reliant on these parts. The components’ importance to continued production also helps explain the background to the dispute over long-term purchasing terms.
The escalation began on February 14, 2020, when Broadcom stopped approving Samsung’s purchase orders, according to the report. On March 5 of the same year, it stopped shipments and production and suspended some technical support. Samsung then signed the contract on March 27 amid concerns that Galaxy S20 production could be disrupted, according to BizHankook. These events link the supply stoppage to the signing of a multi-year purchase commitment, with an annual minimum and compensation for shortfalls. Supply procedures thus became a central part of the case that ended with the penalty and corrective order upheld.
Alongside the Korean proceedings, Samsung filed a separate civil lawsuit in California in July 2024, then withdrew it in November of the same year after settling the dispute, according to a BizHankook report. The companies did not disclose the settlement terms. That case remains separate from the Korean ruling, which became final on October 27, 2026, after the appeals by the 4 Broadcom subsidiaries were rejected. In a later development in the relationship between the companies, Samsung and Broadcom announced a memorandum of understanding on July 25, 2026, to expand cooperation in memory, manufacturing technologies and advanced packaging to support AI infrastructure. The companies estimated that the value of cooperation in memory and manufacturing would exceed $200 billion over 5 years through 2030, with plans including the supply of HBM memory for Broadcom’s AI accelerators.