On Friday 22 September, the European Commission announced that it had once again imposed a fine, this time of €376.36 million, on Intel for abusing its dominant position in the market for processors known as x86 central processing units (CPUs).
In 2009, the Commission imposed an initial fine of €1.06 billion on Intel, having found that the company had engaged in two types of anti-competitive practices designed to exclude any competitor, in particular Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), from the relevant market: - by granting hidden rebates known as “conditional rebates” to computer manufacturers, on condition that they purchase x86 processors from Intel; - by paying computer manufacturers to halt or delay the launch of products containing x86 processors distributed by Intel’s competitors and to restrict the sales channels available for these specific computer chips (“naked restrictions”).
This initial decision was confirmed by the General Court of the EU on 12 June 2014 (judgment T-286/09 - see EUROPE 11099/44), but in September 2017 the Court of Justice of the EU annulled this judgment of the General Court and referred the case back to it (judgment C-413/14 P - see EUROPE 11856/3).
On 26 January 2022, the General Court partially annulled the Commission’s 2009 decision, in particular the conclusion relating to Intel’s practice of conditional rebates. However, the General Court confirmed that Intel’s “naked restrictions” were unlawful (T-286/09 RENV - see EUROPE 12877/17). In April 2022, the Commission lodged an appeal (C-240/22 P), which is still under examination.
The fine of 22 September 2023 is for “naked restrictions”: between November 2002 and December 2006, Intel paid three computer manufacturers (HP, Acer and Lenovo) in serious breach of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
The Commission points out that the amount of the fine reflects the narrower scope of the infringement compared with its initial decision.
Link to case: https://aeur.eu/f/8pf (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)