EU Commission probes Samsung, Apple over patents

BRUSSELS Nov 4 (Reuters) - EU regulators are investigating whether technology companies Samsung Electronics and Apple have breached EU antitrust rules with regards to patents used as standards in the mobile telephony industry, the European Commission said on Friday.

"The Commission has indeed sent requests for information to Apple and Samsung concerning the enforcement of standards-essential patents in the mobile telephony sector. Such requests for information are standard procedure in antitrust investigations to allow the Commission to establish the relevant facts in a case. We have no other comments at this stage," the EU executive said in a statement.