The Court of Justice of the European Union has upheld the General Court's decision, which annulled the European Commission's decision finding that Intel had abused its dominant market position and imposing a fine of €1.06 billion.

In May 2009, the Commission imposed a fine of €1.06 billion on Intel, a US-based microprocessor manufacturer. The Commission alleged that Intel had abused its dominant position in the x86 microprocessor market, in part by offering rebates to its customers and a distributor of desktop computers. In 2014, the General Court dismissed Intel's appeal against the Commission's decision in its entirety. Based on an appeal filed by Intel, the Court of Justice annulled this judgment and referred the case back to the General Court for further proceedings.

Upon referral, the General Court partially annulled the Commission's decision and annulled the fine of €1.06 billion in its entirety. The Commission appealed against the General Court's judgment of 2022.

The Court of Justice dismissed the Commission's appeal and upheld the General Court's judgment.

In its appeal, the Commission argued that the General Court's review of the Commission's assessment regarding the "effective competitor" test was flawed due to procedural irregularities, incorrect legal interpretation, and misrepresentation of evidence.

In its judgment, the Court of Justice rejected all of the arguments raised by the Commission in its appeal. With regard to the "effective competitor" test, the Court of Justice confirmed that the General Court is entitled to review any argument that challenges the Commission's assessment and that is capable of undermining the conclusions reached by the Commission at the end of this test. These arguments may relate to both the compatibility of the Commission's assessment with the principles governing the "effective competitor" criterion and the probative value of the factual circumstances on which the Commission relied. The Court of Justice also confirmed that the General Court is not entitled to verify whether the operative part of the Commission's decision could have been justified on the basis of a reasoning that did not contain errors that the Commission had identified, unless such reasoning is set out consistently in the decision.

An appeal on points of law can be brought against a judgment or order of the General Court to the Court of Justice. This appeal has no suspensory effect. If the appeal is admissible and well-founded, the Court of Justice will annul the judgment of the General Court. If the state of the proceedings allows, the Court of Justice may itself issue a final decision in the case. Otherwise, it will refer the case back to the General Court, which is bound by the decision issued by the Court of Justice on the appeal.

CJEU / gnews - RoZ

PHOTO - CJEU