South Korea's antitrust regulator said Thursday it has launched a full-scale investigation into alleged unfair market practices by U.S. wireless technology company Qualcomm Inc.

The Fair Trade Commission early last month formed a task force to push forward a probe into allegations that the company used its dominant position in wireless technology to seek excessive royalties, said Shin Yeong-ho, an FTC official.

San Diego, Calif.-based Qualcomm developed and controls most of the key patents for CDMA, or code division multiple access, a rival standard to the dominant cellular standard GSM, or global system for mobile communications.

CDMA is used in the United States and South Korea. Every cell phone in South Korea has a CDMA chip and handset manufacturers have to pay royalty fees to Qualcomm.

The San Diego-based chipmaker earns money by collecting royalties or licensing the CDMA technology to other chipmakers and phone manufacturers.

Between April and June last year, the FTC received complaints about Qualcomm from Broadcom Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc., both of the U.S., and two South Korean companies, claiming Qualcomm abused its market dominance.

Shin said that if Qualcomm is found to have abused its position to block fair competition it can be ordered to take corrective measures, face fines or both.

A Qualcomm spokeswoman, Emily Kilpatrick, said the company would not comment because it had not been notified by Korean authorities.

In April, when Korean authorities began investigating Qualcomm, the company said its business practices were "lawful and pro-competitive."

Qualcomm is embroiled in legal and trade disputes with a number of rivals that contend it extracts excessive royalty payments, a charge the company vigorously denies. Korea has long been one of Qualcomm's strongest markets, accounting for 32 percent of $7.53 billion in revenue for its fiscal year that ended Sept. 24.

AP