Intel today lost its bid to discard a 2009 EU antitrust fine, and instead must pay a record €1.06 billion ($1.43 billion).
The European Commission upheld a 5-year-old ruling, which found that the U.S. chipmaker had abused its dominance in the microprocessor market by offering rebates to manufacturers that favored Intel's products.
This fine, according to the court filing, is the highest antitrust penalty levied on a single company by the EU.
An investigation by the European Commission concluded that, between the fall of 2002 and 2007, Intel deliberately undermined competitor Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) by granting rebates to four major computer manufacturers—Dell, Lenovo, HP, and NEC—as well corporate consumer electronics group Media-Saturn.
Those companies, in turn, promised to purchase most, if not all, of their CPUs from Intel.
"Exclusivity rebates granted by an undertaking in a dominant position are, by their very nature, capable of restricting competition and foreclosing competitors from the market," the court said in its ruling.
According to the New York Times, Intel can still appeal the case to Europe's highest court, the European Court of Justice.
"We are very disappointed with the decision," a company spokeswoman told PCMag. "This is a complex case and the decision reflects that. We have begun the process of evaluating the Court's judgment."
Intel recently reported $12.8 billion in first-quarter revenue—down from the final three months of 2013.
Going forward, however, the company is betting big on the Internet of Things, and recently made headlines recently for a plan to introduce wireless charging to PCs and mobile devices. On Wednesday, Intel revealed a new partnership with wireless power company WiTricity—part of its next-gen Skylake platform unveiled at last week's Computex event in Taiwan.