Intel wins appeal against $1.2Bn EU antitrust fine
Intel won its fight against a 1.06-billion-euro EU antitrust fine that was handed 12 years ago to the company for suppressing a rival. The Luxembourg-based General Court nullified the article of the contested decision which imposed on Intel a fine of 1.06 billion euros in respect of the violation found.
The judgment by Europe's second-top court in support of Intel's arguments is likely to cheer Alphabet unit Google in its fight against hefty EU antitrust fines and Apple, Amazon and Facebook, which are in the EU antitrust enforcer's crosshairs.
The European Commission penalised Intel in 2009 for trying to block rival Advanced Micro Devices by giving rebates to computer makers Dell, Hewlett-Packard Co, NEC and Lenovo for buying most of their chips from Intel.
However, the judges said, “The (European) Commission's analysis is incomplete and does not make it possible to establish to the requisite legal standard that the rebates at issue were capable of having, or likely to have, anticompetitive effects.”
The Commission said it would study the judgment and reflect on the possible next steps.
Regulators generally do not like rebates, especially those offered by dominant companies, on concerns they may be anti-competitive. Companies, however, say regulators must prove rebates have anti-competitive effects before sanctioning them.
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