- Intel was found guilty of anti-competitive conduct between 2002 and 2006
- The original fine was reduced from 1.06 billion euros to 376 million euros, now 237 million euros.
- It’s unclear if Intel will pay or if it plans to appeal again.
Intel lost its appeal against an EU antitrust ruling for anti-competitive behavior, but the original €376 million fine set in 2023 was reduced by around €140 million to soften the blow, according to PakGazette information.
The new fine of €237 million has been considered to be more proportionate to the scale and timing of the infringements.
This particular case relates to payments that Intel was found guilty of making to HP, Acer and Lenovo between 2002 and 2006 to delay or completely stop the use of AMD components in their devices.
EU antitrust fine on Intel reduced
Despite the reduction in the amount of the fine, we cannot take it as confirmation that the case will have a drawn line. Intel was initially fined a much larger €1.06 billion in 2009, which was dismissed by the courts in 2023, making this an extremely protracted legal battle.
“An amount of €237,105,540 more appropriately reflects the seriousness and duration of the infringement in question,” the Luxembourg-based court noted.
In 2023, when the 2009 billion-dollar fine was reduced to “only” €376.36 million, Commissioner Didier Reynders said: “Our decision shows the Commission’s commitment to ensuring that very serious antitrust violations do not go unpunished.”
Intel’s payments to stifle AMD sales were classified as “naked restrictions,” which the EU considers “an abuse of a dominant market position.”
After a worrying couple of years, declining sales, competition from Nvidia in the AI market, and a nearly $9 billion investment by the US government to help support American manufacturing, Intel is now readying its next-generation Panther Lake (Intel Core Ultra series 3) laptop processors aimed at high-end AI PCs.
CEO Lip-Bu Tan highlighted the importance of Panther Lake in the “construction[ing] a new Intel.”
The company did not immediately respond to TechRadar ProThe request for a response to the EU’s latest decision to reduce its fine.
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