Intel Scores Major Win as Court Scraps $1.2 Billion EU Antitrust Fine

EU penalised Intel in 2009 for trying to block rival AMD by giving rebates to Dell, HP, NEC, and Lenovo for buying most of their chips from Intel.

By Reuters | Updated: 27 January 2022 17:49 IST

Intel Scores Major Win as Court Scraps $1.2 Billion EU Antitrust Fine

The European Commission penalised Intel in 2009 for trying to block rival Advanced Micro Devices

Highlights

The Commission said it would study the judgment
Regulators generally do not like rebates
The ruling can be appealed to the CJEU

Intel on Wednesday won its fight against a EUR-1.06-billion (roughly Rs. 8,900 crore) EU antitrust fine that the US chipmaker was handed 12 years ago for stifling a rival, in a major setback for EU antitrust regulators. The judgment by Europe's second-top court in support of Intel's arguments is likely to cheer Alphabet unit Google in its fight against hefty EU antitrust fines and Apple, Amazon, and Facebook, which are in the EU antitrust enforcer's crosshairs.

The European Commission penalised Intel in 2009 for trying to block rival Advanced Micro Devices by giving rebates to computer makers Dell, Hewlett-Packard, NEC, and Lenovo for buying most of their chips from Intel.

The Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe's second-highest, criticised the EU competition enforcer's analysis and annulled the fine.

[Sponsored] Samsung Galaxy S24: The Ultimate Camera Phone With Smarter On-Device AI

"The (European) Commission's analysis is incomplete and does not make it possible to establish to the requisite legal standard that the rebates at issue were capable of having, or likely to have, anticompetitive effects," judges said.

The court annulled the entire article of the contested decision which imposed a fine of EUR 1.06 billion (roughly Rs. 8,900 crore) on Intel for the infringement.

The Commission said it would study the judgment and reflect on the possible next steps.

Intel Said to Plan $20-Billion Chip Manufacturing Site in Ohio

The same court had in 2014 upheld the Commission's 2009 decision but was subsequently told by the EU Court of Justice, Europe's highest, in 2017 to reexamine Intel's appeal.

Regulators generally do not like rebates, especially those offered by dominant companies, on concerns they may be anti-competitive. Companies, however, say regulators must prove rebates have anti-competitive effects before sanctioning them.

The ruling will complicate the regulator's task, said Assimakis Komninos, a partner at law firm White & Case.

"This is a huge victory for Intel. It sets the bar higher for the Commission in bringing dominance cases. It will have to do an effects-based analysis for each case. This will have an impact on all companies," he said.

The ruling can be appealed to the CJEU.

The case is T-286/09 P Intel Corporation v Commission.

Looking to buy headphones? Listen to the experts on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.