Intel has ‘good news’ in EU as 15-year-long ‘fight’ comes to an end – Times of India

Europe’s top court ruled on Thursday (October 24) in favour of Intel, backing the 2022 lower court ruling that annulled a 1.06-billion-euro ($1.15 billion) antitrust fine on the US chipmaker. The EU Court of Justice rejected the Commission’s appeal, ending a nearly two-decade-long fight between the US chipmaker and EU regulators.
“The Court of Justice dismisses the Commission’s appeal, thereby upholding the judgement of the General Court,” the court said, as per news agency Reuters.
Last year, a lower tribunal scrapped the fine and this year, Intel’s case got a boost when an adviser to the court said that the regulators had not properly performed an economic analysis.

What Intel has to say

Intel expressed satisfaction with the EU court’s decision.
“We are pleased with the judgement delivered by the Court of Justice of the European Union today and to finally put this part of the case behind us,” an Intel spokesperson said.

Why EU fined Intel in 2009

The European Commission had, in 2009, fined Intel alleging that the company gave rebates to computer makers Dell, HP and Lenovo for buying most of their chips from Intel, which regulators said was an attempt to block AMD. Regulators said that Intel abused its dominance in the market for between October 2002 and December 2007.
Regulators are wary of rebates offered by dominant companies, believing they can be used to unfairly disadvantage smaller competitors and maintain market dominance. Companies, on the other hand, insist that any sanctions should be based on concrete evidence of anti-competitive impact, the Reuters report said.