Europe’s second-highest court yesterday backed a record €1.06 billion fine levied on US chipmaker Intel by EU antitrust regulators five years ago for blocking rival Advanced Micro Devices.

“The General Court upholds the fine of €1.06 billion imposed on Intel for having abused its dominant position on the market for x86 central processing units between 2002 and 2007,” judges wrote in their ruling.

The European Commission in its 2009 decision said Intel tried to thwart AMD by giving rebates to PC makers Dell, Hewlett-Packard Co., Japan’s NEC and Lenovo for buying most of their computer chips from Intel.

Judges at the Luxembourg-based General Court yesterday said they backed the Commission’s decision.

The EU competition authority said Intel also paid German retail chain Media Saturn Holding to stock only computers with its chips.

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