Intel Gains Ground in EU Antitrust Case with Court Backing Against Billion-Euro Fine

Intel Corp INTC has gained another advantage in its ongoing legal battle with EU regulators over a record €1.06 billion antitrust fine. 

Advocate General Laila Medina of the EU’s Court of Justice stated in her non-binding opinion that the regulator’s effort to overturn Intel’s lower court victory should fail because they failed to prove Intel abused its dominant position in the PC chip market to hinder rivals. 

This opinion aligns with a surprising 2022 ruling that annulled a 2009 European Commission decision, which accused Intel of illegal rebates to PC makers to edge out Advanced Micro Devices Inc AMD, Bloomberg reports.

The European Commission, facing its first significant antitrust case loss in over two decades, appealed, arguing the General Court’s judgment was flawed. 

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The dispute centered around Intel’s economic case analysis and whether competitive risks came from rivals’ inefficiency or Intel’s alleged abusive actions.

During the antitrust investigation, the Commission claimed Intel restricted competition from 2002 to 2005 by offering rebates to computer manufacturers if they purchased most of their PC chips from Intel. 

The Commission asserted that Intel imposed restrictive conditions on the remaining 5% of chips supplied by AMD, reinforcing its dominance in the processor market.

The Commission recently reimposed a minor fine on Intel for abusing its dominant position in the x86 central processing unit market. 

This action came after the regulators found Intel engaged in practices aimed at excluding competitors, violating EU antitrust rules. 

Intel is appealing against this new fine and has sued the Commission to recover €593 million in interest.

The U.S. Big Techs had been in a row with the EU regulators. Executives from Apple Inc AAPL, Google’s parent Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL, and Qualcomm Inc QCOM recently met with EU Antitrust Chief Margrethe Vestager to discuss regulatory compliance and competition policy, focusing on the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and general competition policies. 

Key topics included Apple’s need to allow app distribution outside its App Store, ongoing competition cases, and Google’s approach to self-preferencing about the DMA. 

These meetings are crucial in shaping the operations of major tech companies within the EU, ensuring they comply with evolving digital and competition regulations. 

Additionally, the EU has been actively scrutinizing Big Tech companies, imposing fines for antitrust violations, and closely examining large merger deals like Microsoft Corp’s MSFT support for ChatGPT parent OpenAI and Amazon.Com Inc’s AMZN merger with iRobot Corp IRBT.

Price Action: INTC shares were up 2.61% to $47.25 on last check Thursday.

Also Read: EU Eyes Nvidia, Scrutiny Intensifies Over AI Chip Market Dominance

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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