‘Judge must review Intel’s 1.06 billion European fine’

According to Advocate General Nils Wahl of the European Court of Justice, the Court of First Instance should review its decision regarding the maintenance of the multi-billion dollar fine. In 2009, Intel appealed the fine to the General Court, the second highest EU court.

According to the opinion of the Advocate General, the General Court made some mistakes, Bloomberg writes. For example, the judges were not able to fully demonstrate that the discounts provided by Intel actually had a negative effect on competition. According to the original indictment, Intel provided discounts to hardware manufacturers who did not purchase x86 processors from competitor AMD. The company did the same for retail chains, including MediaMarkt, the complaint said. It would not have sold computers with AMD processors.

As a result of these practices, the European Commission fined Intel in 2009 EUR 1.06 billion for abusing its dominant position. In doing so, Intel infringed European competition law by penalizing competitors and consumers. Intel challenged the fine in the Court of First Instance, but in 2014 the company received a null on the application when none of its arguments were accepted by the Court. Intel argued that the fine was disproportionate to the offenses and that there was too little evidence. Intel then decided to challenge the fine with the European Court of Justice, the highest European court.

The Advocate General’s opinion, in the form of an opinion, is not binding on the EU Court. It often follows the reasoning in the advice. Bloomberg writes that a final ruling is expected in about six months.