MY ACCOUNTIn its ruling of 24 October 2024, the European Court of Justice (CJEU) confirmed the General Court’s annulment
of the Commission decision of 13 May 2009, which had fined Intel EUR 1.06 billion for abuse of a dominant position on the x86 microprocessor market.
The infringement in question essentially concerned the granting of exclusive rebates to certain computer manufacturers, considered to be contrary to the competition rules. With this ruling, the CJEU wraps up a long 15-year legal battle, overturning the presumption that exclusivity rebates systematically restrict competition, and requiring the Commission to carry out a detailed assessment of the effects of these practices in order to demonstrate their real impact. The origins of this case date back to 2000, when Intel’s competitor AMD lodged a complaint which led to Intel being sanctioned in a Commission decision under Article 102 TFEU, in resp
ect of two practices:
- The granting of conditional rebates to computer manufacturers in order to purchase their microprocessors exclusively or almost exclusively from Intel;
- Direct payments to computer manufacturers or other restrictions on the distribution of x86 microprocessors designed to discourage them from sourcing from competitors (so-called “disguised restrictions”);
The key issue at stake in this case lies in determining the degree of proof required to show that the rebates granted by Intel did in fact restrict competition.
