BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU Court of Justice, Europe’s top court, ruled in favour of Intel, 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, Hewlett-Packard Co, NEC and Lenovo, 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.
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(Reporting by Makini Brice, Editing by Charlotte Van Campenhout)