Wednesday, September 6th 2017
Intel's €1.06 billion EU Antitrust Fine to be Reviewed Back in the General Court
You may remember the EU's historical May 13th 2009 decision to slap Intel with a €1.06 billion fine for antitrust practices. Well eight years later, that odyssey isn't over just yet. The ECj (European Court of Justice), the European Union's supreme court, ruled today for a retrial of Intel's appeal against the €1.06 billion antitrust fine. The argument: the European Commission's accusations and Intel's counter-arguments weren't "delved enough" so as to arrive at the fine's decision. Specifically, the ECJ states that "The General Court was required to examine all of Intel's arguments … which the General Court failed to do (...)".
This decision pretty much guarantees more years of respite for Intel towards payment of the imposed fine, originally levied upon the company in 2009. It also shakes the European justice system's credibility, in the sense that a historical fine decision, which should be the EU's poster-case for antitrust violations and a free, just market, were based on incomplete information and ignorant of some of the counter-arguments raised by the blue giant. Specifically, the title of the ECj's press-release states that "The case is referred back to the General Court in order for it to examine the arguments put forward by Intel concerning the capacity of the rebates at issue to restrict competition."
The ECj further states that the original court had not properly considered the "efficient competitor test", a technical assessment of how Intel's activity impacted AMD's ability to compete against it. At the time, commission regulators concluded Intel, which was experiencing a dominating position in the x86 CPU market (with over 70% market share), offered rebates or even directly paid customers Dell, Lenovo, HP, NEC and to Europe's largest IT retailer, Media Markt, on condition they shun rival AMD's products in favor of Intel-branded ones. Further, the decision presented cases of Intel paying computer makers to cancel or delay the launch of systems using chips made by AMD, and even of selling its CPUs for server computers below production cost to large customers such as governments and universities.
Sources:
Politico, Intel picture, European Union's Court of Justice Press Release, Engadget, IT World, Kitguru
This decision pretty much guarantees more years of respite for Intel towards payment of the imposed fine, originally levied upon the company in 2009. It also shakes the European justice system's credibility, in the sense that a historical fine decision, which should be the EU's poster-case for antitrust violations and a free, just market, were based on incomplete information and ignorant of some of the counter-arguments raised by the blue giant. Specifically, the title of the ECj's press-release states that "The case is referred back to the General Court in order for it to examine the arguments put forward by Intel concerning the capacity of the rebates at issue to restrict competition."
21 Comments on Intel's €1.06 billion EU Antitrust Fine to be Reviewed Back in the General Court
Perhaps they'll increase the fine ...
It's also the reason why AMD's Mullins & Beema never took off in the cheapo laptop market i.e. $200~300 or x86 tablets.
if 1b is nothingnahhhh they still have enough ... i'm pretty sure ... probably not in "public" view
my tic was blue/green my toc will be red/green, just need to wait a bit more ....
They would probably still fight it even if it was half the amount
edit: i would have written it more like that "because it's a drop in 'their' ocean"
And my last 2 PC's were Intel but was that due to Intel and all their crap they given AMD over the years ?. One thing over the 30 years the crap Intel has put AMD though it surly not helped.
I hope they get what should happen, maybe others will start to talk and get them more fines if found in wrong doing.
But money talks.