An Intel logo at the Intel Museum in Santa Clara Piumini Moncler Nantesfur Bambino Bianche Scontati , California in file photo. The EU’s top court yesterday ordered a lower court to reconsider its rejection of an appeal by US chip giant Intel against one of the EU’s biggest-ever fines for breaking competition rules. The decision by the European Court of Justice keeps alive one of the longest running EU competition court cases in history that could impact similar cases against Google and chipmaker Qualcomm. — AFP
EUROPE’S top judges dealt a rare blow to European Union antitrust regulators yesterday by sending their case against chipmaker Intel back to a lower court for an appeal.


In a move that may have ramifications for the EU watchdog’s cases against Qualcomm and Google, the EU Court of Justice said a court which had upheld a 1 billion euro (US$1.3 billion) European Commission fine against Intel should re-examine the US company’s appeal.


“The case is referred back to the General Court in order for it to examine the arguments put forward by Intel concerning the capacity of the rebates at issue to restrict competition,” the ECJ said in a statement.


The commission handed down the fine in 2009, a record at the time, saying that Intel had tried to block rival Advanced Micro Devices by giving rebates to PC makers Dell Piumini Moncler Bambino Daim Rosa Scontati , Hewlett-Packard Co, NEC and Lenovo for buying most of their computer chips from Intel.


The ruling is good news for companies in the EU regulator’s crosshairs, Foad Hoseinian at law firm Freshfields said.


“This is a setback for the commission as it will be more closely scrutinized by the courts