EGC confirms 1.06bn Euro fine against Intel

European General Court T-286/09

The European General Court has confirmed the fine of 1.06bn Euro issued by the European Commission against Intel.

The court found that the American chip manufacturer Intel held a market share above 70% for computer chips. It would grant discounts to computer manufacturers Dell, Lenovo, HP and NEC on condition to buy almost all x86 processors from Intel. It also made payments to the retailer Media-Saturn on condition it would only sell computers that ran on Intel's x86 chips. Further Intel made payments to the manufacturers HP, Acer and Lenovo for them to market computers with AMD chips later, limited or not at all. 

The judges held that with its dominant market share the granting of exclusive discounts by Intel to particular manufacturers was in itself a behaviour likely to restrict competition. A further proof by the European Commission of its actual damaging impact on the competition was therefore not required. The payments to the retailer and manufacturers for exclusivity are a similar restriction of competition only later in the sales chain.