Fresh blow for EU competition tsar as Intel asks for €593m interest on overturned fine

BRUSSELS has been hit with a claim for almost €600m (£515m) in historic interest from Intel in another setback for the EU’S competition watchdog.

The US chipmaker is seeking interest payments months after the European Commission was forced to return $1.2bn (£980m) to the company.

The EU fined Intel €1.06bn in 2009, claiming it abused its dominant position in the processor market to exclude other manufacturers. But EU courts ruled in January that the commission had made legal errors in levying its antitrust fine, which was at the time one of the largest ever handed to a company.

Europe’s second highest court, the General Court, said analysis by the commission was incomplete and did not make it possible to establish that rebates given by Intel to PC makers were capable of having anticompetitive effects.

Intel said it was now making a fresh claim at the EU courts after the commission allegedly refused to reimburse the default interest on the reimbursed fine in March.

Interest is estimated to stand at €593m, which Intel said was based on an interest rate calculation referencing the European Central Bank’s refinancing rate over the period from when the fine was levied to when the EU returned the money in February. The final figure it is claiming for is minus the interest payment the commission has already paid to Intel, equal to €38m.

The company has filed its claim in the wake of a landmark ruling last year by EU courts that demanded default interest must be paid on reimbursed fines when antitrust cases were overturned.

The claim brings the EU’S crackdown on tech leaders further into focus as it comes less than a week after courts ruled that a separate fine against chipmaker Qualcomm should be annulled.

Both the Intel and Qualcomm decisions have been seen as a major defeat for EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager, who has been leading efforts to curb the dominance of tech giants.