Xia says it will continue to protect interests after Indian court ruling

On Sunday, Chinese phone maker Xiaomi Corp said it was disappointed with an Indian order that froze $682 million of its assets and would continue to protect the interests of the company.

An Indian appellate authority upheld an April order by India's federal anti-financial crime agency, the Enforcement Directorate, to seize 55.51 billion rupees, saying an investigation found that Xiaomi had made illegal transfers to entities foreign currency passing them off as royalty payments.

The Chinese smart device firm said in a statement on Sunday that more than 84% of the 55.51 billion Indian rupees seized by the Enforcement Directorate were royalty payments made to US chip company Qualcomm Group.

The company said that Xiaomi India is one of the companies of the Xiaomi GroupXiaomi Group, which has entered into a legal agreement with Qualcomm to license IP for the production of smartphones.

The statement said that both Xiaomi and Qualcomm believe that it is a legitimate commercial arrangement for Xiaomi India to pay Qualcomm royalties.

According to Counterpoint Research, with a share of 18%, Xiaomi and Samsung jointly lead the smartphone market in India, the second largest in the world after China.

Due to political tensions following a border clash in 2020, many Chinese companies have struggled to do business in India.

India has a tighter rules on Chinese companies investing in India due to security concerns in banning more than 300 Chinese apps since then, including popular ones like TikTok.