EU Ruling May Shift Playing Field for Google, Qualcomm

Posted by Bloomberg

EU Ruling May Shift Playing Field for Google, Qualcomm

By Eleanor Tyler

Companies such as Google Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. could benefit in pending antitrust cases from a ruling by the EU’s highest court allowing Intel Corp. to fight claims that its pricing policies hurt competition.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) doesn’t often rule on competition cases, and it rules against the European Commission even less frequently. Its Sept. 6 ruling giving Intel another shot at appealing a 1.06 billion-euro ($1.26 billion) fine in effect hands the EC a defeat by reversing a lower court decision that completely affirmed the EC’s case.

The opinion also answers some questions about how companies can defend themselves against abuse of dominance challenges in the EU — issues that are front and center in the high-profile cases against Google and Qualcomm ( Intel Corp. v. European Commission , E.C.J., C 413/14 P, 9/6/17 ).

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