EU: Intel’s battle against €1bn fine wins backing from top court advisor

Intel’s attempt to overturn a €1 billion antitrust fine from the European Commission was given a pick-me-up from a top EU court adviser on Thursday.

Advocate general Nils Wahl opined that Intel’s appeal against the record 2009 penalty for abuse of dominance in the chip market should be upheld, adding that the case deserved to be revisited.

While AG opinions are non-binding, the EU Court of Justice typically sides with the adviser’s view.

The chip maker had—for five years—dished out rebates to PC vendors such as Dell and HP, and it also paid German retailer Media Saturn Holding to only stock computers with “Intel inside”—a move that Europe’s General Court later described as damaging to its market rivals such as AMD.

It said in 2014: “The evidence gathered by the commission led it to the conclusion that Intel’s conditional rebates and payments induced the loyalty of the key OEMs and of MSH.

“The effects of these practices were complementary, in that they significantly diminished competitors’ ability to compete on the merits of their x86 CPUs.

“Intel’s anti-competitive conduct thereby resulted in a reduction of consumer choice and in lower incentives to innovate.”

However, Wahl has challenged the ruling by arguing that the lower court of the CJEU was wrong to dismiss Intel’s appeal against the €1.06 billion ($1.16 billion) fine because it had failed to demonstrate how such “exclusivity rebates” had harmed competition in the EU.

Full Content: The Wall Street Journal

Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.