(Oct 24): Intel Corp won the latest round of an epic legal battle with the European Union over a case that led to a once-record antitrust fine of €1.06 billion (US$1.1 billion or RM4.98 billion).

The EU’s Court of Justice ruled that regulators failed to prove the US company doled out illegal rebates to PC makers that agreed to buy most of their chips from Intel.

Judges said on Thursday they rejected all the grounds of appeal raised by the European Commission, the EU’s competition watchdog.

The top court’s judgement is in line with a shock ruling two years ago, that annulled part of the commission’s 2009 decision accusing Intel of abusing its dominance to crush its rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

The commission at the time appealed its first big defeat in an antitrust case in more than 20 years — saying the judgement at the EU’s General Court was riddled with errors.

Despite the win for Intel, Thursday’s court’s judgement is still not the end of the matter.

Another legal battle is still ongoing after the commission imposed a new €376.36 million fine last year — focusing on the parts of its case where it actually won at the lower court in 2022.

This targeted how Intel had paid manufacturer to halt the launch of products containing competing chipsets — conduct described as “naked restrictions” in EU antitrust law. As well as fighting the smaller penalty, Intel has also sued the commission to seek interest on its original fine.

In the course of its antitrust probe ahead of the 2009 decision, the commission alleged that Intel hindered competition by giving rebates to computer makers from 2002 until 2005 — if they bought at least 95% of PC chips from Intel. It said Intel imposed “restrictive conditions” for the remaining 5%, supplied by AMD, which struggled to overcome Intel’s hold on the market.

The case is: C-240/22 P Commission v Intel Corporation.

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