However, European Union antitrust regulators fined Intel Corporation 376.36 euros ($400 million) for “abuse of a previously established dominant position in the computer chip market” (as Intel processors are called). x86 family in the legal documents).
Blooomberg recalls that at the beginning of 2009, the European Commission had already imposed a record fine of 1.06 billion euros on Intel, but in 2022 it itself annulled the punishment, as the EU court ruled that the regulators made mistakes when deciding on allegedly illegal discounts that Intel provided. PC manufacturers will unseat their rival AMD (Advanced Micro Devices).
The European Commission now explains the repeated fine of half the amount by the fact that it received information that Intel “used a series of anti-competitive methods aimed at excluding its opponents from the relevant market, in violation of EU antitrust rules” .
In explaining why the amount has changed, the EC uses the term “manifest restrictions” (obvious restrictions). That is, the current fine reflects exclusively proven violations.
The 2009 case involved two types of data. On the one hand, there are “conditional discounts”: which were granted on the condition that PC manufacturers purchased all or almost all of their x86 processors from Intel. In this case, the regulator’s actions were considered excessive, which led to the cancellation of the fine.
On the other hand, there were specific restrictions on the actions of competitors, that is, direct payments from Intel to PC manufacturers for stopping or delaying the launch of certain products with competing processors (that is, for limiting sales channels ).
In 2009, the European Commission could not determine the exact amount the company should have been fined, and only in 2023 did regulators cope with the task. The list of “obvious restrictions” included agreements with HP, Acer and Lenovo in 2004-2006.
In response to the fine, Intel said it would seek a review of the new decision, as the European Court of General Jurisdiction’s decision on protecting Intel in 2022 shows that the company is “not guilty on key points of the case.” “
“Although we are disappointed by the fine of this amount, we continue to focus on our future investments in the EU and on cooperation with the EU to promote the development of the European semiconductor industry,” added California-based Intel officials.
Author:
Ekaterina Alipova
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
