The fine was originally imposed for suppressing competition, which is a major setback for EU antitrust regulators. The European Commission wanted to fine Intel first twelve years ago for blocking competition, Advanced Micro Devices, by giving rebates to computer manufacturers Dell, Hewlett-Packard Co, NEC and Lenovo for buying most of their chips from Intel.

The European Union in this case came up with Intel's analysis, but the judges recently stated that it did not prove legally that the discounts granted were in breach of competition rules. The court annulled in its entirety the article of the contested decision, which fined Intel EUR 1.06 billion for the infringement found.

Performance of Intel Corporation (Source: Investing.com)