Broadcom is understood to be under investigation by the European Commission over its market dominance to set-top box providers.
In a story first reported by Bloomberg the semi-conductor firm is accused of placing undue pressure on manufacturers to buy its technology over that of its rivals.
The Commission has issued a questionnaire to manufacturers after which it will decide whether to make the matter further. To date the preliminary enquiries have not been made public.
Bloomberg says the questionnaire asks whether companies have ever been threatened with patent suits and whether Broadcom has ever threatened to withdraw discounts from companies that do not use its products exclusively.
In 2015 the Commission approved the acquisition of Broadcom by Avago, the former chip division of Agilent Technologies. At the time there was concern over the so-called ‘switch chip” market.
Neither Broadcom nor the European Commission have commented on the story.