No billion-euro fine against Intel: EU Commission fails before the ECJ

In the legal dispute over a billion euro fine against Intel, the EU Commission has once again suffered a defeat before the European Court of Justice. The court rejected all of the Commission's grounds of appeal against the annulment of the fine of 1.06 billion euros, it announced today, Thursday. Intel told Bloomberg that it was satisfied with the decision, and Brussels intends to examine it in detail. The chip manufacturer expects to finally be able to put the matter behind it.

Years of legal dispute with a decisive turning point

The basis of the legal dispute is the EU Commission's assessment that between 2002 and 2007 Intel used discounts to persuade the four "strategically important computer manufacturers" Dell, Lenovo, Hewlett Packard (HP) and NEC to buy only chips from the US company. The competitor AMD was thus left behind. In 2009, Brussels imposed a fine of 1.06 billion euros as punishment. Five years later, a lawsuit brought by Intel against it failed.

In 2017, however, the matter was referred back to the competent court by the ECJ and the wind changed. A full 12 years after the billion-euro fine was imposed, it was declared null and void in its entirety in January 2022. As a result, the EU Commission took its case to the European Court of Justice and has now failed. Following its victory, Intel not only wanted the billion-euro fine back, but is also demanding 593 million euros in interest from the European Commission.

Even though the European Commission was unable to prevail before the ECJ, it does not want to go away empty-handed. A year ago, it decided that the parts of the legal dispute in which it prevailed with its assessment justified a fine of 376.36 million euros. The sum is based on the allegations that the ECJ had not rejected two years ago. At that time, the court was unable to determine which part of the original fine related to the confirmed allegations, which is why it was overturned in its entirety.

(mho)