Intel has lost its challenge to overturn an EU antitrust ruling on Wednesday, meaning it faces a 237 million Euros ($278 million) fine, reports Reuters. This is probably, finally, the conclusion of a very long-running antitrust investigation and legal dispute that kicked off in the early noughties. However, the scale of the fine is only about a quarter of what it was back in 2009.
Intel’s iron grip, AMD’s disadvantage
A very long legal timeline
In May 2009, the European Commission, which “acts as the EU competition enforcer” in Reuters reporting parlance, decided to levy a record fine of 1.06 billion Euros ($1.24 billion) on Intel. As per our canned explanation above, this was punishment for its dastardly deeds disadvantaging AMD during the early noughties.
Intel would appeal the fine the same year. But the General Court upheld the Commission’s decision and fine in a 2014 judgment.
Something of a reprieve came Intel’s way in 2017, when the Court of Justice of the EU set aside the 2014 judgment to reexamine whether Intel’s rebates truly restricted competition from AMD.
Then, in 2022, the General Court annulled the huge $1 billion+ fine, due to what it saw as a prior incomplete analysis by the Commission.
Thus, some reassessments were needed, and these were completed in 2023-24. The Commission refocused primarily on what it saw as direct payments to OEMs to halt or delay AMD‑based products, rather than rebate schemes, to recalculate the scale of its Intel fine. This meant the fine was reduced to 376 million Euros ($438 million).
Fast-forward to today, and the General Court has decided to uphold the Commission's 2023 decision against Intel. Some not-terrible news for the now far poorer Intel, though, is that the Luxembourg-based tribunal decided to scale back the reduced fine, again, to 237 million Euros ($278 million). The reasoning given was that the reduced sum better reflected the “gravity and duration of the infringement at issue,” reports Reuters.
Next stop, EU Court of Justice?
Is this really the conclusion of this case? Perhaps not, as both the Commission and Intel can still choose to appeal to the EU Court of Justice, Europe's highest, to keep this case trudging along for a few more years.
Over the years, the EU has frequently stepped in to stamp down on what it has found to be market malpractice and competitive skulduggery. Notable citizen-centric wins have forced Apple to reduce App Store restrictions, slapped Google for manipulating search/shopping results, and forced Microsoft to offer a browser choice screen in Windows.
Moreover, EU residents enjoy longer guarantees, safer food standards, enhanced privacy, the free movement of goods and services (e.g. online shopping, mobile roaming), and more. This collective bargaining power is often criticized by multinationals and tech barons as a bad thing.
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