by Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS, Jan 26 (Reuters) – The General Court of the European Union on Wednesday annulled a 1.06 billion euro fine imposed by the European Commission on U.S. chip giant Intel in 2009 for abusing its dominant position in the global processor market, which is a setback for European competition authorities.
The community bloc had sanctioned the group for trying to block rival Advanced Micro Devices by giving rebates to computer OEMs Dell, Hewlett-Packard Co, NEC and Lenovo, on the condition that they buy nearly all of Intel’s their x86 processors.
The Court based in Luxembourg, the second highest court in Europe, criticized the analysis carried out by the European competition authority and annulled the fine.
“The analysis carried out by the Commission is incomplete and does not establish to the requisite legal standard that the rebates at issue were capable or likely to have anti-competitive effects,” the judges said.
The court thus annuls in its entirety the article of the contested decision imposing on Intel a fine of 1.06 billion euros for the infringement found.
The same court had upheld the Commission’s 2009 decision in 2014, but the Court of Justice of the EU, the highest European court, overturned this judgment in 2017 and sent the case back to the General Court.
Rebates, especially those offered by dominant firms, are generally not favorably viewed by competition authorities as they may have anti-competitive effects.
The companies say, however, that regulators must prove that price cuts have such effects before sanctioning them.
The decision, which should encourage Alphabet subsidiary Google to fight three hefty EU antitrust fines, may still be appealed to the Court of Justice. (Foo Yun Chee report, French version Diana Mandiá)