Intel (INTC) won a major legal battle on Thursday when the European Union’s top court ruled that EU antitrust regulators could not reinstate a €1.06bn (￡883m/$1.14bn) fine against the company, marking the end of a nearly two-decade-long case.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) upheld a lower court's ruling, rejecting an appeal by the European Commission, which had fined Intel in 2009 for allegedly engaging in anticompetitive practices in the market for computer chips.

“The Court of Justice dismisses the Commission’s appeal, thereby upholding the judgment of the General Court,” the ECJ said in its ruling.

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The case dates back to accusations that US chipmaker Intel had offered rebates to major computer manufacturers — Dell (DELL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), NEC (6701.T), and Lenovo (0992.HK) — on the condition that they primarily purchased Intel's x86 central processing units (CPUs). Regulators argued that these rebates were intended to block competition from rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a violation of EU antitrust rules.

“Such rebates and payments effectively prevented customers, and ultimately consumers, from choosing alternative products”, the Commission said at the time. “By undermining competitors’ ability to compete on the merits of their products, Intel’s actions undermined competition and innovation.”

The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, had originally imposed a record €1.06bn fine, accusing Intel of abusing its dominant position in the x86 CPU market by incentivising manufacturers to delay or halt the release of products using competing chips. Intel’s appeal set off a prolonged legal battle spanning 15 years.

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EU Commissioner for competition policy Didier Reynders said that the fine was reimposed because Intel abused its dominant position in a way that is “illegal under our competition rules”.

In 2022, the General Court of the European Union overturned the original fine, ruling that the Commission's analysis was flawed and failed to prove that Intel’s rebate practices had harmed competition. Following this decision, the EU reduced Intel’s fine to €376.36m and filed an appeal, seeking to reinstate the original penalty.

With Thursday’s ruling, the ECJ effectively confirmed the lower court’s decision, closing the chapter on a case that had long been a focal point in European competition law.

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