The European Commission on Tuesday filed antitrust charges against the chip maker Qualcomm, the latest in a growing number of competition investigations targeting American technology companies.

Europe’s antitrust officials in Brussels said that Qualcomm, one of the world’s largest makers of chips, had abused its dominant market position in the region by offering financial incentives to smartphone and tablet manufacturers that agreed to buy equipment solely from Qualcomm.

Qualcomm was also accused of unfairly setting prices below manufacturing costs to force competitors from the market. The company’s chips are widely used in smartphones and other mobile devices that have become central to many people’s daily lives.

“I am concerned that Qualcomm’s actions may have pushed out competitors or prevented them from competing,” Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s top competition official, said in a statement on Tuesday. “We need to make sure that European consumers continue to benefit from competition and innovation in an area which is at the heart of today’s economy.”