The European Court of Justice is scheduled to publish its verdict in an appeal by Intel against a once-record €1.06 billion sanction. Though the court hasn’t overturned a Commission judgment in almost 40 years, the U.S. chipmaker has some reason to hope for victory in this case: A senior member of the court last October lambasted the Commission and recommended its appeal be upheld.
A judgment in Intel’s favor will have a direct and immediate impact on Commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s landmark antitrust probes into other American firms Qualcomm and Google, and it carries wider implications for Commission inquiries into dominant firms and cartels across the board. [...]
The verdict, in a case launched by one of Vestager’s predecessors more than 10 years ago, comes as she enters the last two years of her mandate as Europe’s commissioner for competition. Closing two open cases each against Google and Qualcomm will be critical for her legacy.
Vestager has been frustrated at the way competition probes drag out across years, but she is well aware of the importance of winning before the courts. “Fast is always better than slow, but best of all is to be just,” she often says.
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