Intel (INTC, Financial) is pushing back hard against a proposed €376 million EU antitrust fine, arguing the European Commission has overstated the scope of its 2002–2006 conduct.
The Commission first fined Intel €1.1 billion in 2009 for allegedly paying HP (HPQ, Financial), Acer (ACEYY, Financial) and Lenovo (LNVGY, Financial) to sideline rival AMD (AMD, Financial) chips, and while Intel won a partial reduction in 2022, today's appeal hearings focus on whether those agreements truly formed an “overall strategy” to block competitors.
During Friday's session, Intel attorney Daniel Beard told the General Court that the Commission cannot treat isolated pricing practices and handset incentives as equally weighty or cumulatively strategic, and that the narrower “naked restrictions” should not carry the same penalty heft. Intel maintains its payments to OEMs addressed specific product launches rather than a blanket market foreclosure, and it is confident that judges will further trim the liability or overturn the fine entirely.
Why It Matters: A final ruling could reshape EU tech-sector enforcement and remove a looming multi-hundred-million-dollar overhang on Intel's valuation.
Investors will be watching the court's decision, expected in the coming months, for clues on regulatory risk and any impact on Intel's cash reserves.
