EU court upholds antitrust finding against Intel, but cuts fine by €140 million

The General Court of Europe, the EU’s second-highest judicial body, issued a ruling on Wednesday in a major antitrust case involving U.S. chip giant Intel Corp.

The court rejected Intel’s main objection to the European Commission’s finding that the company unlawfully abused its dominant position in the market to harm competitors, particularly Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

However, the court granted significant financial relief to Intel by reducing the relevant antitrust penalty from the original €376 million to €236 million (approximately US$275 million). This represents a cut of €140 million.

“An amount of 237,105,540 euros is a more appropriate reflection of the seriousness and duration of the violation in question,” the Luxembourg-based General Court said. he said.

The decision is the latest development in a long-running saga dating back to a 2009 decision when the Commission fined Intel a whopping €1.06 billion. This initial sentence was eventually annulled by the court in 2023, leading to the reimposition of the lower sentence that is the subject of today’s appeal.

Case T-1129/23 (Intel Corporation and Commission).