A fine that had been hanging over Intel’s head for 15 years has finally been waved away by the European Supreme Court. Intel was sued by the EU in 2009 for anti-competitive practices.
How long can a lawsuit drag on? In Intel’s case, up to 15 years. The European Supreme Court states in a press release that it has dismissed a fine for Intel. The fine dated back to 2009.
In 2009, the European Commission fined Intel one billion euros. At the time, fines of that magnitude were still very rare. The fine came after a complaint by competitor AMD that Intel was colluding with PC manufacturers to release only PCs with Intel chips: those were different times.
Pyrus victory
Intel managed to secure an initial court victory in 2022, but the European Commission appealed to the Supreme Court. The ruling was reaffirmed and thus the fine finally disappears into the trash.
Although Intel did not escape it entirely, as the original ruling did condemn the “naked restrictions” imposed by Intel. The European Commission used that ruling to still impose a €376 million fine last year. Today’s ruling is nevertheless a band-aid on the wound.
Things have changed dramatically for Intel since 2009. Back in the noughties, Intel was incontournable in the chip industry, but today the company is in choppy waters. Intel announced major reforms in September to get the ship back on track. Then it’s nice to know that this 2009 corpse didn’t come out of the closet.
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