Today's "What Year Is This?" In the news, Intel is fighting back against a huge antitrust fine of 1.06 billion euros (about $1.2 billion) imposed by the European Commission in 2009. We thought the case was settled years ago, but apparently not; more than a decade later, the General Court of the European Union is re-opening the case.

So what the heck is this all about? The company was fined the highest amount ever imposed at the time.

The case primarily concerned rebates offered to OEMs such as Dell and HP.

"Intel offered whole or partially hidden rebates in exchange for computer manufacturers purchasing all or almost all of their x86 CPUs from Intel. Intel also made direct payments to one major retailer on condition that it stock only computers with Intel x86 CPUs," the Commission stated.

The Commission also found that Intel made direct payments to PC manufacturers to "halt or delay the launch of certain products powered by competitors' x86 CPUs and to restrict sales channels for these products."

In short, the Commission found that the strings attached to the rebates created an uneven and unfair playing field that made it more difficult for rival AMD to sell x86 processors.

"Intel has argued that if computer manufacturers choose to purchase AMD's CPUs for the portion of the market where there is room for competition, the result would be that computer manufacturers would have no choice but to purchase from Intel, and would lose the rebate Intel offers for the larger portion (or larger portion of it), the Commission structured its pricing policy so that they would lose that rebate."

The Commission stated.

The case has dragged on for nearly 11 years since the fine was imposed, as have the appeal proceedings. Intel actually paid the fine, but has since filed a challenge; it lost the challenge in 2014, but then in 2017 the EU's highest court, the Court of Justice of the European Union, appealed the 2014 decision and ruled that the case should be heard again.

"Either the Commission took the wrong approach in its decision, or it conducted the [AEC] test as an efficient competitor and got it wrong," Intel's lawyer Daniel Beard told the five-judge panel.

Intel's fine is the third largest fine ever imposed by the Commission. The two largest fines are both from Google, which was fined €2.42 billion (~$2.73 billion) in 2017 and €4.34 billion (~$4.89 billion) in 2018.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Intel claims that its "actions are legal and do not harm competition"; Seeking Alpha analyst Mike Bruzzone disagrees and believes these appeals are an "unnecessary waste of time" and that "quasi-lawyers . loves to siphon off additional fees from Intel."

More interesting than the outcome is what impact it will have in the future. For example, if Intel were able to overturn the fine, would it pursue similar rebates again?" and "If so, will companies bite now that AMD is offering competitive products across the CPU stack?" The answers to these questions will have to wait for another day. These questions will have to wait for another day.

Reuters