A few months ago it was canceled antitrust fine imposed by the European Union towards Intel. Shortly after this sanction was annulled, a strong investment by Intel within the borders of the EU to manufacture chips was announced. Well, when it seemed that everything was closed, Intel reopen the case and request a compensation of 625 million dollars.
For those who do not know what we are talking about, the European Union investigated Intel on monopoly practices in the laptop market. The company was accused of offering advantages to manufacturers so that they would prioritize the sales of their laptops. During many years of litigation, Intel was fined $1.2 billion.whose sanction was annulled a few months ago.
Intel now asks the European Union for compensation
The Intel’s monopolistic practices They are quite well known inside and outside the industry. Different strategies have been sought by the company to develop better solutions than the company. Many times it has been commented that Intel requires that certain processors cannot be accompanied by AMD graphics and only with the high-end NVIDIA.
Since that sanction has finally been annulled, now Intel requests compensation for lost interest. Specifically, the “payment of compensation and consequential interest for the damages suffered due to the European Commission’s refusal to pay Intel’s default interest” is requested before the General Court of the EU.
This amount is not random, it is based on the refinancing rate of the European Central Bank. The company says that the original fine was imposed in 2009, indicating that the EU owes them more than half the value of the fine.
We must stress that the EU has already paid Intel no less than 38 million euros for interest of the fine paid in 2009. It seems that the American company is not happy with this sum and asks for more money.
But the situation still has many more chapters. The European Union can appeal the decision favorable to Intel before the Commission. This would mean that Intel would have to repay the initial penalty and the interest charged.
Pretty weird situation
The reality is that it does not matter if the fine ends up being effective or not, why fool ourselves. Intel will create new chip production plants in Europe with different subsidies. This means that, at an effective level, the sanction will not end up being an effective reality, even if it is finally ruled that it must be paid.
It is a huge grotesque that we have been thinking about this issue for 15 years. Although the first fine is from 2009, the years investigated are between 2004-2007. What’s more, who remembers the processors that existed on the market at that time?
It does not seem logical that after so much time, we are still talking about fines, compensation and such things. And on top of that, now we are talking about new Intel production plants in Europe with different economic aid. It’s just that it’s all so bizarre and surreal, that the sanction doesn’t matter or not, much less, after so many years up and down.
