Intel wins 15-year legal battle over massive EU fine

Intel emerged victorious in a lengthy legal battle with the European Union on Thursday, as the bloc's top court ruled in its favour, dismissing a €1.06bn antitrust fine.

The ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) marked the conclusion of a dispute that started in 2009, when the European Commission accused Intel of abusing its market dominance by offering rebates to major computer manufacturers including Dell, HP and Lenovo, to favour its chips over those of rival AMD.

The European Commission claimed that the rebates were designed to exclude competitors from the market for x86 processors.

However, Intel consistently contested the charge, leading to a 2022 ruling by the EU's General Court that annulled the fine.

The ECJ's new decision upholds that annulment, rejecting all of the EC’s appeals, stating that regulators had not sufficiently demonstrated the anticompetitive effects of Intel’s actions.

While the decision closed one chapter of Intel’s legal troubles, the chip giant still faced a separate fine of €376.4m imposed by the EC last year over additional sales practices.

At 0854 EDT (1354 BST), shares in Intel Corporation were up 0.68% in premarket trading in New York, at $22.13.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.