Europe’s highest court rules for Intel in anti-trust case

Ruling brings fifteen-year legal battle to a close

Intel wins epic legal battle with the EU over antitrust fine of €1.06 billion.

The EU Court of Justice, Europe's top court, has ruled for Intel, ending a legal battle between the US chipmaker and EU regulators which has been ongoing for fifteen years.

"The Court of Justice dismisses the Commission’s appeal, thereby upholding the judgment of the General Court," the court said.

The case dates to 2009, when Intel was fined for the abuse of a dominant market position. The European Commission built a case against the Intel based on the chipmaker engaging in anticompetitive practices such as providing rebates to computer manufacturers including HP, Lenovo and Dell to give itself an unfair advantage over its chief rival at the time, which was AMD.

“Such rebates and payments effectively prevented customers, and ultimately consumers, from choosing alternative products”, the Commission said in 2009. “By undermining competitors’ ability to compete on the merits of their products, Intel’s actions undermined competition and innovation.”

Intel appealed, and the case has been pinging in and out of the EU’s highest courts ever since, with multiple appeals and upholding of the original decision.

In 2014, the EU General Court upheld the fine, but were then asked to review Intel’s appeal by the EU Court of Justice in 2017.

In 2022 it concluded that the Commission had not established the legal standard on the degree to which the rebates could have anticompetitive effects. It subsequently overturned the fine.

The Commission launched another appeal with the CJEU, but today’s judgement has finally ended the long running saga by saying it “rejects all of the grounds of appeal raised by the Commission”.

Nonetheless, whilst the €1.06bn fine has been taken off the table, the Commission is still going ahead with the levy of a lower fine of €376.36m for Intel’s abuse of its dominant market position between 2002 and 2006.

The separate action focuses on the parts of its case where it won at the lower court in 2022.

Intel said it’s “pleased” with the ruling “and to finally put this part of the case behind us.”

Intel has seen its edge erode in the last few years, particularly in Europe. In September, it disclosed that it would postpone a planned factory in Germany that had been earmarked for €10 billion in state subsidies.