Intel scores fresh triumph against EU after top court backs annulment of billion-euro antitrust fine

LONDON — Chipmaker Intel won a fresh win Thursday in a long-running battle with European Union competition watchdogs after the bloc’s top court confirmed a lower tribunal’s selection to overturn a billion-euro antitrust penalty.

The EU’s Court of fairness upheld the selection to annul the fine issued more than a decade ago, dismissing an appeal from the European fee, the 27-country bloc’s top antitrust enforcer.

The court said it “rejects all of the grounds of appeal raised by the fee,” according to a press release summarizing the selection.

Intel said in a statement that it’s “pleased with the judgment delivered by the Court of fairness of the European Union today and to finally put this part of the case behind us.”

The case dates back to 2009, when the fee slapped Intel with a 1.06 billion euro fine ($1.14 billion at current swap rates) for allegedly using illegal sales tactics to shut out smaller rival AMD. The fee accused Intel of abusing its dominant position in the global economy for x86 microprocessors with a schedule to exclude rivals by using rebates.

Intel scored a shock triumph in 2022 when the EU’s General Court overturned the penalty, the selection that the Court of fairness backed on Thursday.

The latest selection is still not the complete of the road for the case, because the corporation is battling a divide 376.4 million-euro ($406.6 million) fine that Brussels imposed last year targeting some Intel sales restrictions that the General Court found were unlawful in its 2022 ruling.

Shares of Intel Corp., based in Santa Clara, California, rose slightly before the opening bell Thursday.