"We firmly believe that claims of anti-competitive behaviour by former Philips smart card chips business are unfounded. As a result, Philips plans to appeal the decision," the company said in a statement. Philips spun off its semiconductor business into the independent company NXP Semiconductors in 2006.

European Union antitrust regulators on Wednesday said they fined Philips, Samsung Electronics and Infineon Technologies a total of 138 million euros ($181.32 million)for fixing prices of chips used in mobile SIM cards.

(Reporting By Thomas Escritt; Editing by Michael Urquhart)