Intel finds a friend in fight against $1.2B EU antitrust fine

An advisor to Europe’s General Court has torn into the legal logic behind the EU's €1.06 billion ($1.2 billion) antitrust fine levelled against chip giant Intel. Intel has fought the fine, which was imposed by the European Commission (EC) in 2009 over rebates awarded to major computer makers, including Dell, HP, and Lenovo, in …

[steamnut]

Time for brown envelopes to be slid across the desks.

[Roland6]

Time for more brown envelopes to be slid across more desks.

[Necrohamster]

Intel won't be popping champagne corks just yet.

The Advocate-General is a judicial advisor and, as noted way down in the second-last paragraph, their opinion is non-binding.

The EU usually gets its pound of flesh where antitrust cases are concerned.

[OhForF']

Fined in 2009 and still fighting?

This case should have been settled one way or the other long ago. More than a decade and the court proceedings are still going on...

The only ones that profit from that kind of justice are lawyers.

[Anonymous Coward]

When are bribes not bribes, when they're referred to as rebates /s

‘the Commission .. failed to establish .. that the "rebates at issue were capable of having, or were likely to have, anticompetitive effects."’