A fine that Intel had been levying for fifteen years was finally thrown out by Europe’s Supreme Court. Intel was sued by the EU in 2009 for anti-competitive practices.

How long can a lawsuit take? In the case of Intel, up to fifteen years. Europe’s Supreme Court says in a press release that it has dismissed a penalty against Intel. The fine dates back to 2009.

In 2009, the European Commission fined Intel one billion euros. Fines of this magnitude were still an exception back then. The fine came after a complaint from competitor AMD that Intel was in cahoots with PC manufacturers to only bring PCs with Intel chips onto the market: Those were different times.

Pyric Victory

Intel managed to win its first court victory in 2022, but the European Commission appealed to the Supreme Court. The verdict was upheld and the fine was ultimately thrown in the trash.

Although Intel hasn’t completely escaped this, as the original ruling actually condemned the “naked restrictions” imposed by Intel. The European Commission used this ruling to impose a fine of 376 million euros last year. Today’s verdict is a plaster on the wound.

Since 2009, the situation for Intel has changed dramatically. In the noughties there was still Intel uncontourable in the chip industry, but today the company finds itself in troubled waters. Intel announced sweeping reforms in September to right the ship. Then it’s a bonus that this corpse from 2009 hasn’t fallen out of the closet.