Way back in 2009, the EU placed a €1.06 billion ($1.2 billion) fine on Intel for anti-competitive practices against AMD. For the years since, a back-and-forth battle has endured. Today, Intel claimed that the fine laid on by the EU's antitrust regulators is flawed, as reported by Reuters.
The charges against Intel are that it attempted to block AMD's growth in the market by offering PC makers, such as Dell and HP, incentives to purchase most of its CPUs from Intel. Intel paid the fine in full in 2009; however, in 2014, Intel challenged the EU General Court's Commission on the decision. Following extensive assessment, the General Court upheld the fine.
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In 2017, however, Intel took the case to the EU Court of Justice (CJEU). The EJEU disagreed with the General Court's decision in 2014 and ordered the general court to re-examine the case yet again. This process has been running up until today.
“The Commission either took a wrong approach in its decision or it carried out an as efficient competitor (AEC) test and it got it wrong,” Intel's lawyer, Daniel Bear, said to a panel of judges at the General Court in a re-hearing of the case, Reuters reported today.
In response, GC Commission lawyer Nicholas Khan said, "That was assessed very exhaustively in 2014. Intel’s request is a second bite at the cherry."
No consensus has been reached yet. Although the French consumer body UFC is backing the General Court, the Association for Competitive Technology is siding with Intel.
A judgment is expected to be announced next year, though the losing party will be able to, once again, appeal the case to the CJEU.