Intel rakes in €515M from EU after ancient antitrust fine nixed
- Reference: 1738604231
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/02/03/intel_eu_antitrust_payout/
- Source link:
The Silicon Valley chipmaker received the €515 million in default interest from the European Commission following the company's successful appeal against a €1.06 billion ($1.1 billion) fine [1]imposed in 2009 for anti-competitive practices.
According to [2]reports , the EU's new antitrust chief, Teresa Ribera, who took over from Margrethe Vestager in December, informed a member of the European Parliament about the payment in a written statement, saying it had been made to Intel on November 6 last year.
[3]
We asked Intel how it felt about this glimmer of light in an otherwise gloomy year for the silicon biz. It didn't respond.
[4]
[5]
The payment relates to a cheeky [6]demand from the chipmaker for €593 million ($623.5 million) in interest on that billion-euro penalty as damages following the [7]reversal of the antitrust fine in 2022.
[8]Intel has officially missed the boat for AI in the datacenter
[9]Intel sinks $19B into the red, kills Falcon Shores GPUs, delays Clearwater Forest Xeons
[10]Want Intel in your Surface? That'll be $400 extra, says Microsoft
[11]Intel pitches modular PC designs to make repairs less painful
Naturally, the Commission tried to appeal, but the EU Court of Justice upheld the judgment in a [12]ruling last October, meaning that it coughed up the damages to Intel within weeks of the decision going against it.
The case this relates to is almost ancient history now, concerning Intel abusing its dominance of the processor market around the turn of the millennium. Regulators accused Intel of offering financial incentives to its PC builder customers to continue to favor its CPUs rather than those produced by rivals such as AMD. It resulted in what was claimed to be the [13]highest fine ever imposed on a company by the EU in 2009.
Intel has seen a dramatic fall in its fortunes recently, reporting a $100 million net loss for the [14]fourth quarter of 2024 , and revenue down 7 percent year-on-year, while the past 12 months have now seen the former chip champ record $18.8 billion in losses.
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Still, at least the firm can console itself with that €515.55 million it has scored from the EU – like finding a tenner in your coat pocket after losing big on the horses. ®
Get our [16]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2009/05/13/intel_europe_fine/
[2] https://www.reuters.com/technology/intel-gets-536-million-interest-106-billion-euro-eu-antitrust-fine-2025-01-31/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z6FKiR54Ytz0ztFCF7V-VAAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z6FKiR54Ytz0ztFCF7V-VAAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z6FKiR54Ytz0ztFCF7V-VAAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/20/intel_antitrust_eu/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/27/intel_eu_antitrust_fine/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/01/intel_ai_datacenter/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/31/intel_q4_2024/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/30/microsoft_surface_intel/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/23/intel_modular_pc_designs/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/24/intel_eu_antitrust_fine/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2009/05/13/intel_europe_fine/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/31/intel_q4_2024/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z6FKiR54Ytz0ztFCF7V-VAAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
No longer, indeed.
I still uphold the ideal, but the eurocrats have ruined it.
Nothing is "fit for purpose" since the expression is entirely meaningless*. Purpose is an abstract noun. Would you care to give a concrete example of a purpose for which it is not fit?
-A.
*Brought to the public by one John Reid, a particularly useless New Labour apparatchik.
The legal system is a farce. Neelie Kroes fought hard for this, and now 10 years after her retirement the EU is effectively fining itself € 515m and giving it to the offender. (Yes offender, because they upheld the finding of market abuse, as can be seen below)
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/oct/24/intel-legal-battle-against-eu-880m-fine-competition
"Intel sought to annul the ruling in 2009 and lost in the EU’s general court in 2014, but went on to succeed on appeal in 2017 when the EU’s highest court opened the case for review, declaring a legal error.
The case returned to the general court, which in 2022 annulled part of the 2009 decision, but upheld the commission’s finding of market abuse through naked restrictions, ie those that only have the aim of eliminating rivals. In 2022, judges also cancelled the entire €1.06bn fine, as they said they were unable to determine how much of the penalty related to the naked restrictions."
The EU is not fit for purpose.