The European Commission returns to the charge against Intel and applies a fine of 376.36 million euros for abuse of a dominant position. In this way, regulators have partially reinstated a punishment against those led by Pat Gelsinger, after a fine imposed in 2009 was annulled last year by the General Court of the European Union.
According to the European Commission, between November 2002 and December 2006, Intel paid three computer manufacturers (Acer, Lenovo and HP) to delay the launch of products with AMD processors. This is considered a severe violation to article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
The truly curious thing about this case is that the application of economic punishment against Intel has generated ups and downs between the European Commission and the General Court. Although both organizations agreed that the American warbler abused his dominant positionthey disagreed on the exact penalties and their justification.
Let’s keep in mind that the original fine was for 1,060 million euros, a much higher figure than the current one. However, after an extensive legal process that included at least two appeals by Intel, The General Court chose to annul part of the European Commission’s decision and cancel the original fine. The justification was that the amount of the penalty was not commensurate with the errors committed by the company.
Intel suffers a slap in the face again in Europe
According to the 2009 ruling, Intel carried out two illegal practices:
- It granted hidden discounts (partial and total) to manufacturers who purchased only its x86 processors. Or from those who, at least, bought most of the CPUs to be used in their products.
- It paid manufacturers to slow down or delay the release of specific products that used x86 processors from competitors. In this sense, the main affected was AMD.
What the General Court of the European Union did in 2022 was to discard the first of the two points just mentioned. This led to the aforementioned annulment of the original fine.
In this way, the new punishment of 376 million euros that the European Commission imposes on Intel corresponds only to the abuse of a dominant position for payments made to Acer, HP and Lenovo. Nevertheless, regulators still do not consider lost the battle regarding hidden discounts.
The authorities have appealed the ruling of the General Court and they are still waiting for a resolution. If the court finally agrees with the European Commission, the amount of the fine could increase again. What is still not clear is whether, if finalized, the final figure will once again be 1,060 million euros.
Everything indicates that this story still has a lot to talk about. We will be attentive to the news.