Europe's top court rules for Intel in long-running antitrust case

NEC

24/10/2024 08:40

BRUSSELS, Oct 23 (Reuters) - EU Court of Justice,
Europe's top court, ruled in favour of Intel INTC.O , ending a
nearly two decade-long fight between the U.S. chipmaker and EU
regulators who had said it had tried to thwart a rival.
    The European Commission had fined Intel for giving rebates
to computer makers Dell DELL.N , Hewlett-Packard Co, NEC 6701.T 
 and Lenovo 0992.HK , for buying most of their chips from Intel,
which regulators said was an attempt to block Advanced Micro
Devices.
    Regulators generally oppose rebates offered by dominant
companies because they fear they may be anticompetitive, while
companies say enforcers must prove discounts have
anticompetitive effects before companies are sanctioned.

($1 = 0.9285 euros)

 (Reporting by Makini Brice, Editing by Charlotte Van
Campenhout)
 ((M.Brice@thomsonreuters.com;))