Intel's "historic victory" reversed: fined another $400 million by the European Union for "abusing dominant position" in PC chips.

Last year, Intel won a "historic victory" when the European Court of Justice rejected a massive $1.2 billion antitrust fine imposed by the European Union. However, this year, Intel is once again facing an antitrust fine from the EU! On September 22nd, the European Commission announced that it has found Intel to be in violation of EU antitrust rules for engaging in a series of anti-competitive practices aimed at excluding competitors from relevant markets. As a result, Intel has been fined €376.36 million (approximately $400 million). Specifically, Intel's misconduct in this case involves the abuse of its dominant position in the computer chip market known as x86 central processing units. In 2022, the General Court of the European Union had previously rejected the EU's exorbitant antitrust fine of up to €1.06 billion ($1.127 billion) against Intel. The court stated that the analysis conducted by the EU antitrust regulatory agency was incomplete and failed to establish the necessary legal standards to determine the competitive impact of rebates. It is worth noting that the court stated that it was unable to determine the damages related to Intel's conduct, and therefore completely annulled the part of the fine related to damages. According to the EU's statement, the General Court confirmed Intel's abusive behavior in the market dominance. That is why the European Commission has now issued a new decision to penalize only Intel's "abuse of dominance" behavior. The case dates back to 2000 when AMD accused Intel of providing rebates to its partners using its x86 chips, which violated competition law. The European Commission (EC) launched an antitrust investigation in 2004 and imposed a fine of €1.06 billion ($1.127 billion) on Intel in 2009. The EU antitrust authority stated that Intel attempted to suppress its competitor AMD by offering rebates to computer manufacturers such as Dell, HP, NEC, and Lenovo to encourage them to purchase chips from Intel. This was the largest antitrust fine ever imposed by the EU at the time, accounting for about 4% of Intel's sales. Since then, Intel has been embroiled in endless legal disputes with the EU antitrust authorities. In 2014, the General Court of the European Union rejected Intel's first appeal. In 2017, the European Union's highest court instructed the EU General Court to re-examine Intel's appeal and determine whether the rebates provided by Intel constituted anti-competitive behavior. The European Union's highest court did not rule on the other three parts of Intel's appeal in 2017, including the amount of the fine and the description of the rebates by the EU. In January 2022, Intel won its appeal, as the EU General Court rejected the exorbitant antitrust fine imposed by the EU 13 years ago. However, it did not overturn the EC's 2009 ruling that Intel bribed manufacturers to prevent its competitors from selling their products. In its report in January of last year, Intel stated that the European Commission had recently restarted administrative proceedings to determine the fine against Intel based on the aforementioned conduct, and the company was unable to make a reasonable estimate of potential losses. Judges of the lower EU court had previously stated that the European Commission provided "incomplete" analysis when imposing the fine on Intel, as it failed to provide sufficient evidence to support its investigation into the risks of anti-competitive behavior. At the time, Intel stated, "We have always believed that our rebate practices were lawful and did not harm competition." The company also expressed its anticipation to continue investing and developing in Europe, stating that the semiconductor industry has never been as competitive as it is now.