The U.S. Federal Trade Commission launched a lawsuit against Qualcomm on Tuesday, accusing the company of forcing Apple into an exclusive deal to buy its baseband chips. When Apple sought to lower the patent royalties it was paying Qualcomm, the latter firm made that conditional on Apple buying Qualcomm chips exclusively between 2011 and 2016, according to an FTC filing seen by Bloomberg . The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus still use Qualcomm chips in some configurations, while others are now based on Intel modems. Bloomberg did not initially offer any other details on the suit. The FTC has been investigating Qualcomm since 2014, concerned …