15 years after being fined $1.06 billion (a record fine at the time), Intel won a victory, following a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union. As a reminder, on May 13, 2009, the European Commission sanctioned Intel for abuse of a dominant position. The processor maker was accused of offering discounts to PC makers, conditional on those companies purchasing all or almost all of the x86 processors they need from Intel. The Commission had also pointed out payments in favor of a large distributor, to promote its products. The investigation was launched following complaints filed by competitor AMD.
In any case, the European Commission’s decision was followed by a very long legal battle. As recalled in the press release from the Court of Justice of the EU, the General Court of the European Union rejected Intel’s appeal “in its entirety”. But subsequently, this judgment was annulled by the Court of Justice of the EU, which referred the case back to the General Court. On referral, the latter annulled part of the European Commission’s decision, as well as the entire fine. Subsequently, the European Commission filed an appeal against this judgment of the General Court of the European Union in 2022.
The Court of Justice of the EU confirms the cancellation of the fine
It is this appeal by the Commission which was recently rejected by the Court, which therefore confirms the decision of the EU General Court to annul the fine imposed on Intel. However, this is not a complete victory for Intel. Indeed, as mentioned above, the European Commission’s decision was only partially annulled. As explained in a press release from Brussels, the Court confirmed the “illegality” of a practice called “naked restriction” which was also criticized against Intel: according to the Commission’s decision in 2019, Intel paid manufacturers of PC to cease or delay launches of certain products using competing x86 processors.
Based on this development, the Commission imposed a new fine of €376.36 million on Intel in September 2023.
- In 2019, Intel was fined more than a billion euros for abuse of dominant position
- This fine was annulled by the General Court of the EU and this decision was confirmed by the Court of Justice of the EU
- However, justice has partially ruled in favor of Brussels, which has already imposed a new fine in 2023
