Intel just won an epic battle with the European Union over a €1.06 billion ($1.1 billion) fine levied way back in 2009, Bloomberg reported. In a final decision, the EU Court of Justice overturned the original judgement, ruling that regulators didn’t provide sufficient proof that Intel gave illegal rebates to PC makers. Intel’s European misadventures aren’t quite finished yet, though, as it’s still battling a €376 million fine ($406 million) imposed by the Commission last year.
Back in 2009, the EU ruled that Intel illegally used hidden rebates to squeeze rivals out of the marketplace for CPUs. It also found that Intel paid manufacturers to delay or completely cease the launch of products powered by AMD’s CPUs, calling those actions “naked restrictions.” The legal process went back and forth for years after that, but in 2017, Europe’s highest court ordered the fine to be re-examined as the EU didn’t conduct an economic assessment on how Intel’s actions impacted rivals.
Europe’s second highest court confirmed that the Commission carried out an incomplete analysis and overturned the €1.06 billion fine back in 2022. At the time, it said that the EU couldn’t establish if Intel’s rebates were “capable of having, or were likely to have, anticompetitive effects” due to the incomplete analysis.
The Commission launched an appeal to that ruling, but the EU Court of Justice has now upheld it. Still, Intel never appealed the “naked restrictions” part of past decisions, so last year the Commission imposed a new €376 million fine on that basis. Intel is also fighting that penalty too, though, and has sued the EU to recoup interest on the original, larger fine.
The processor landscape has changed drastically since the original 2009 ruling, of course. Back then, Intel ruled the PC roost with an 81 percent CPU market share, compared to 12 percent for AMD. Today, Intel’s share is down to 63 percent and the company has struggled in the area of chip production next to rival TSMC, which manufacturers the bulk of AMD and NVIDIA’s CPUs, GPUs and AI processors. Ironically, Intel has outsourced a large chunk of its production to TSMC and other foundries, to the tune of around 30 percent. Luckily, despite its manufacturing problems, it does appear to have excellent legal counsel.
