Intel Rakes In €515M From EU After Ancient Antitrust Fine Nixed

Beleaguered chip giant Intel has at least one thing to smile about after receiving a payout of €515.55 million ($536 million) from the EU in relation to an old antitrust case that it challenged.

The Silicon Valley chipmaker received the €515 million in default interest from the European Commission following the company's successful appeal against a €1.06 billion ($1.1 billion) fine imposed in 2009 for anti-competitive practices.

According to reports, the EU's new antitrust chief, Teresa Ribera, who took over from Margrethe Vestager in December, informed a member of the European Parliament about the payment in a written statement, saying it had been made to Intel on November 6 last year.

We asked Intel how it felt about this glimmer of light in an otherwise gloomy year for the silicon biz. It didn't respond.

The payment relates to a cheeky demand from the chipmaker for €593 million ($623.5 million) in interest on that billion-euro penalty as damages following the reversal of the antitrust fine in 2022.

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Naturally, the Commission tried to appeal, but the EU Court of Justice upheld the judgment in a ruling last October, meaning that it coughed up the damages to Intel within weeks of the decision going against it.

The case this relates to is almost ancient history now, concerning Intel abusing its dominance of the processor market around the turn of the millennium. Regulators accused Intel of offering financial incentives to its PC builder customers to continue to favor its CPUs rather than those produced by rivals such as AMD. It resulted in what was claimed to be the highest fine ever imposed on a company by the EU in 2009.

Intel has seen a dramatic fall in its fortunes recently, reporting a $100 million net loss for the fourth quarter of 2024, and revenue down 7 percent year-on-year, while the past 12 months have now seen the former chip champ record $18.8 billion in losses.

Still, at least the firm can console itself with that €515.55 million it has scored from the EU – like finding a tenner in your coat pocket after losing big on the horses. ®