The EU Court of Justice orders new assessment in a case of abuse of dominance by a semi-conductor company granting loyalty rebates (Intel)

EU Court Orders New Assessment of Intel's Rebates The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has quashed a ruling by the EU’s General Court which had upheld the European Commission’s (EC) 2009 finding of abuse of dominance by Intel Corporation Inc. Intel was fined €1.06 billion, a record at the time, for granting rebates in exchange for the promise by buyers not to buy from Intel’s rivals. In over-ruling the lower court the CJEU has gone some way towards restricting the EC’s reliance on form over substance, instead requiring an assessment of anti-competitive effects. [1] The EC had taken the line that such exclusivity rebates were anti-competitive by their very nature and did not have to be examined as to their effect – although it had in fact conducted such an examination.