The fine was imposed on Intel for giving rebates to Dell, HP and Lenovo for buying most of their chips from Intel, thereby shutting out AMD
The judgment came from Europe’s second-highest court – the General Court. It can be appealed to Europe’s highest court – the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU).
“The Commission’s analysis is incomplete and does not make it possible to establish to the requisite legal standard that the rebates at issue were capable of having, or likely to have, anticompetitive effects,” says the judgment.
If it stands, then regulators will have to show anti-competitive effects as well as anti-competitive actions by companies they intend to sue.
The Commission said it would study the judgment and reflect on the possible next step.