Judiciary
An EU court has trimmed an antitrust fine against German chip manufacturer Infineon from about 82.8 million euros (93.3 million dollars) to just below 76.9 million euros.
The EU’s General Court said the European Commission, which imposed the fine in 2014, had not taken enough account of the limited number of anti-competitive contracts Infineon had with its competitors.
Infineon, Dutch firm Philips, and Asian firms Samsung and Renesas, were jointly fined around 138 million euros for having illegally coordinated business decisions between 2003 and 2005.
The Luxembourg-based court also found that the European Commission had not proved the existence of one of the 11 anti-competitive contracts it held Infineon to have been involved in.
The General Court upheld the full fine in an initial 2016 ruling but Infineon appealed to the superior European Court of Justice, arguing that the 2016 judgment did not re-examine all the allegedly anti-competitive contracts.
The higher court agreed with Infineon that the General Court had failed to consider all the contracts contested by the firm, and ordered it to reconsider the proportionality of the fine.
Philips had also appealed to the European Court of Justice but was unsuccessful. The latest ruling can also be appealed. (dpa/NAN)
– Jul. 8, 2020 @ 13:05 GMT |
Tags: EU court trims €82m cartel fine on chip maker Infineon
