A €1.06 billion EU antitrust penalty imposed on chipmaker Intel for abuse of dominance going back to 2009 (when it was equivalent to $1.45 billion) has been consigned to the history books after the bloc's top court rejected the Commission's appeal against a 2022 ruling by a lower court that nullified the sanction.

"The Court of Justice dismisses the Commission's appeal, thus confirming the order of the General Court," it said in a statement on Thursday.

One aspect of EU enforcement that didn't cut it was "conditional rebates." Those are rebates Intel gave to computer manufacturers on the basis of their respective sales of computers containing Intel chips. Those, according to the Commission, were anti-competitive, and thus illegal under the two-stage test of Article 102. The judges disagreed.

But Intel hasn't won everything: the 2022 decision upheld its "naked restrictions" as illegal — practices involving paying PC makers to stop or delay production of products that include rival chips. The chipmaker did not appeal this ruling, which is why the EU imposed a new fine last fall of about $400 million.