The US technology giant Intel on Wednesday scored a major win in a years-long dispute with the European Commission over a fine for the alleged abuse of its market dominance.
The EU General Court in Luxembourg ruled the commission’s analysis for the fine did not demonstrate to the necessary legal standard that Intel’s practices had anticompetitive effects, a court press release said.
The European Union’s second-highest court cancelled the entire 1-billion-euro (1.1-billion-dollar) fine issued by the commission in May 2009, despite only dismissing the penalty in part.
The ruling can be appealed to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the EU’s highest court.
European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a Brussels press conference that the EU executive branch would “need to study in detail … what we can learn from this judgement.”
In 2001 the commission began investigating Intel after a complaint from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), another US technology firm and significant market competitor.
The commission found that the US technology firm had worked to exclude AMD from the market by offering manufacturers generous rebates on the condition that they only use Intel computer chips.
The commission also found that Intel had paid major retailers, such as Germany’s Media Markt, to stop selling products made with the chips of its rivals, and fined the company for its actions.
After two appeals from Intel in 2014 and 2017, the ECJ returned the case to the EU General Court for a second ruling.
Intel argued the commission had not examined the circumstances of the disputed rebates in full before issuing the fine.
The ECJ said the lower court had followed the commission in assuming that disputed rebates made by a dominant company automatically resulted in restricted competition.
The EU General Court cancelled the fine in full on Wednesday as it could not calculate how much of the penalty was due to the use of rebates or the agreement with Media Markt. (DPA)