CORRECTED: EU opens antitrust proceedings vs Qualcomm

(Corrects paragraph 13 to show six companies issued statement, not five)

By Dale Hudson and William Schomberg

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission has launched antitrust proceedings against U.S. chip maker Qualcomm (QCOM.O) after mobile phone manufacturers complained it charged far too much for vital technology licenses.

Nokia (NOK1V.HE), Broadcom Corp (BRCM.O), NEC Corp (6701.T), Texas Instruments Inc (TXN.N), Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd (6752.T) and Ericsson (ERICb.ST) complained in 2005 that Qualcomm's license fees for its third-generation technology were far too high.

The Commission said in a statement on Monday it would conduct an in-depth investigation as a matter of priority.

The move had long been expected, but its announcement comes just two weeks after the Commission won a major victory against U.S. technology giant Microsoft (MSFT.O).

On September 17, the EU's top court threw out Microsoft's appeal against a landmark 2004 antitrust ruling by Brussels.

European Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd said there was no link between the cases. The EU executive decided in August to launch the proceedings against Qualcomm but was only now able to make the announcement, he said.

At the heart of the Qualcomm case is the allegation by the phone makers that it broke an agreement to license patents on "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms."