According to Reuters, Intel may still face a huge fine from the European Commission.
In January last year, the European Union General Court revoked the 1.06 billion euro (about 1.2 billion US dollars) fine imposed by the European Commission on Intel in 2009.
However, according to Intel's recent annual report to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the European Commission filed an appeal to the European Court of Supreme Court of the European Union last April.
The appeal said that the ruling of the EU General Court did not overturn the ruling of the European Commission in 2009 that Intel bribed manufacturers to prevent their competitors from selling products.
Intel said, "The European Commission has restarted the administrative procedure and determined the penalty for Intel according to the above actions. In view of the status of the procedure and the nature of this procedure, we cannot make a reasonable estimate of the potential loss or the scope of loss (if any) that may arise from this matter."
The case can be traced back to 2000, when Intel's competitor AMD accused Intel of offering rebates to partners using its x86 chip, which violated the competition.
The European Commission said that Intel abused its dominant position and engaged in two forms of illegal acts, namely loyalty discounts and direct restrictions. Specifically, Intel gave special discounts to four computer manufacturers, Dell, HP, Lenovo and NEC, on the condition that they all or almost all use their processors. In addition, Intel also paid computer manufacturers to delay or stop the launch of products using its competitors' processors, and restricted the sales channels of these products.
In June 2014, the European Union General Court rejected all Intel's appeals and upheld the previous punishment decision. The judge said that the penalty of 1.06 billion euros given by the relevant regulatory authorities of the European Commission in 2009 was equivalent to 4.15% of Intel's 2008 revenue, and the regulatory authorities could impose a penalty of up to 10% of the annual revenue at their discretion, so this penalty decision did not exceed the standard.
Intel filed an appeal in 2014 and 2017 against the ruling of the European Common Court.
1.06 billion euros! Intel may face another fine after a series of twists and turns in the antitrust case
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02
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