Rebates after the General Court’s 2022 Intel judgment

Abstract

Twenty-two years after the first complaint against Intel’s distribution strategy was received by the European Commission, the saga continues. In January 2022, the General Court annulled the Commission’s infringement decision because it had not shown that Intel’s practices foreclosed market access, but this ruling has been appealed against by the Commission. This paper reviews the General Court’s 2022 judgment, explaining the introduction of a new approach to analysing rebates, its operationalization, and what this new approach means for the application of Article 102 TFEU to the conduct of dominant undertakings. abuse of dominant position, distribution strategy, rebates, market access foreclosure