Winning the €1.1 billion antitrust lawsuit in the European Union, will this be Intel's lifesaving straw?

The European Court of Justice, also known as the "European Union Court", ruled in favor of Intel on Thursday, ending the nearly 20-year legal battle between the American chip manufacturer and the EU regulatory authorities.

In this case, the EU regulatory authorities initially brought antitrust charges against Intel, and a lower court made an unfavorable ruling against Intel, imposing a fine of 10.6 billion euros (approximately 11.4 billion US dollars) on Intel. However, Intel was dissatisfied with this ruling and appealed to the European Union's highest court, the European Court of Justice.

After a review, the European Court of Justice made a ruling in favor of Intel. The European Court of Justice stated on Thursday that they rejected all the grounds of appeal put forward by the European Commission. The court believed that the EU did not have sufficient evidence to prove that Intel had given illegal discounts to computer manufacturers, thus overturning the lower court's ruling and canceling the fine imposed on Intel.

Intel Successfully Counters EU Antitrust Charges

Intel expressed "pleasure" at this ruling and stated that they could finally put this part of the case behind them. The European Commission, headquartered in Brussels, stated that they would "carefully analyze this judgment."

Although Intel won this case, there are still other legal issues ongoing. Last year, the European Commission imposed a new fine of 3.7636 billion euros on Intel, and this case is still ongoing. This case involves Intel paying manufacturers to stop launching products with competitor chips, a practice described as "blatant restrictions" under EU antitrust law. In addition to defending against this smaller fine, Intel also plans to sue the European Commission to demand payment of interest on the original fine.

The ruling of the highest court this time is very similar to the ruling two years ago, when it was also believed that the EU's charges against Intel were unfounded. At that time, the European Commission accused Intel of using its dominant position in the market to suppress its competitor AMD. It was the first major defeat for the European Commission in antitrust cases in over 20 years. The Commission expressed dissatisfaction with that ruling and believed that there were many errors in the judgment of the EU General Court.

In the antitrust investigation before the 2009 ruling, the European Commission accused Intel of providing rebates to computer companies from 2002 to 2005, with the condition that these companies had to purchase at least 95% of their chips from Intel. For the remaining 5% of chips, they were usually supplied by AMD, but Intel imposed some restrictions that made it difficult for AMD to compete with Intel in the market.

After years of competition with its rivals, Intel found its technological advantage declining. Intel encountered some difficulties in Europe, affecting their semiconductor plans there, including in September this year when Intel revealed that it would delay the construction of a factory planned in Germany, which was originally designated to receive 1 billion euros in state subsidies.

Additionally, the case number for this case is: C-240/22 P Commission v. Intel Corporation