Intel recently won a historic battle with the European Union over a €1.06 billion ($1.1 billion) fine it levied back in 2009, Bloomberg report. In the final decision, the Court of Justice of the EU overturned the first decision, ruling that the regulators did not provide enough evidence that Intel offered illegal discounts to PC makers. Intel’s European adventures are far from over, however, as it is still fighting a 376 million euro ($406 million) fine imposed by the Commission last year.
Back in 2009, the EU ruled that Intel illegally used hidden rebates to exclude competitors from the CPU market. It also found that Intel paid manufacturers to delay or completely stop the launch of products powered by AMD CPUs, calling those actions “bare restrictions.” The legal process went back and forth for years after that, but in 2017, Europe’s highest court ruled that the fine should be reconsidered as the EU did not conduct an economic assessment of how Intel’s actions affected competitors.
The second highest European court confirmed that the Commission had made an incomplete analysis and rejected a fine of 1.06 billion euros in 2022. At the time, it said the EU could not determine whether Intel’s rebates “could have, or were likely to have, anti-competitive effects” due to an incomplete analysis.
The Commission launched an appeal against that decision, but the Court of Justice of the EU has now upheld it. However, Intel did not appeal the “bare restrictions” part of the previous decisions, so last year the Commission imposed a new fine of 376 million euros on that basis. Intel is fighting that fine, too, and is suing the EU to recover interest on the original, larger fine.
The processor landscape has changed a lot since the original decision in 2009, of course. At the time, Intel ruled the PC roost with 81% of the CPU market share, compared to AMD’s 12 percent. Today, Intel’s share has dropped to 63 percent and the company has struggled in the chip manufacturing space alongside rival TSMC, which produces a number of AMD and NVIDIA CPUs, GPUs and AI processors. Ironically, Intel outsourced most of its production to TSMC and other bases, about 30 percent. Fortunately, despite its production problems, it appears to have excellent legal counsel.
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