Billion-dollar fine against Intel annulled, says EU Court of Justice

In 2017, the Court of Justice tossed out the Commission’s judgement, saying that the General Court did not examine all of Intel’s arguments as it was required to do. “The Court therefore sets aside the judgment of the General Court as a result of that failure in its analysis,” it concluded, referring the case back to the General Court “to examine, in the light of the arguments put forward by Intel, whether the rebates at issue are capable of restricting competition.”

But that wasn’t the end of it.

In 2022, the General Court, after thoroughly reviewing the arguments from both sides, ruled, “the analysis carried out by the Commission is incomplete and, in any event, does not make it possible to establish to the requisite legal standard that the rebates at issue were capable of having, or were likely to have, anticompetitive effects, which is why the General Court annuls the decision.”