Intel to fight massive $1.2 billion EU antitrust fine

Back in 2009, the European Union hit Intel with a record breaking $1.2 billion antitrust fine, after concluding that the chip maker had abused its market position to try and stifle AMD's growth and avoid competition. Intel tried to fight back against the fine with an appeal back in June 2014 but was denied. However, the company was still able to file one more appeal against it and this week, the case went back to court.

The EU court heard Intel's appeal against the fine this week, where one of Intel's lawyers argued (via: Bloomberg) that the European Commission did not analyse “all relevant circumstances” during its investigation.

The investigation itself dates back to events that took place between 2002 and 2007. According to the Commission, during this time Intel offered ‘rebates' to system manufacturers like Dell, HP, Acer and Lenovo on the condition that they bought at least 95 percent of their chips from Intel. After that, Intel is said to have imposed “restrictive conditions” for the remaining 5 percent, in order to keep AMD from growing too large.

Aside from the massive fine, the EU also ruled that the rebates Intel was offering to system makers were in-fact illegal. The EU Commission will make its decision on Intel's new appeal soon and when it does, we will give an update.

KitGuru Says: This case dates back so far that a lot of people may have forgot about it completely. However, it does seem like this might be the last of it if Intel can't appeal again. 

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