Court Reaffirms Illegality of Intel’s Conduct
In 2022, judges concluded the commission wrongly assumed the rebates were inherently harmful without analyzing each one. Still, the court confirmed the unlawfulness of Intel’s “naked” payments—direct inducements made to manufacturers such as Acer and Lenovo specifically to limit or exclude AMD-based computers. The difficulty was quantifying damages, leading to annulment of the first fine.
On Wednesday, the General Court said the commission did not need to re-prove its jurisdiction or redefine the infringement, as the illegal restrictions had already been upheld by EU courts. The only requirement was to recalculate the fine based solely on the conduct still at issue.
Intel’s Appeal Rejected—But Fine Further Adjusted
The court dismissed Intel’s arguments that its defense rights were violated, that the 2023 decision lacked adequate reasoning, or that a fresh statement of objections was required. The judgment noted that the procedural backdrop was “perfectly well-known” to Intel and that the commission clearly laid out how it computed the penalty.
Intel had argued the reduced fine remained “disproportionate and unlawful,” citing the previous annulment and the narrower set of practices under scrutiny. Judges, however, found the commission’s assessment must be modified only to further refine the fine by considering the limited number of computers affected and a 12-month gap between some anticompetitive acts.
