Monitoring References to the Court of Justice of the European Union
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8 case reports
Intel's €1.06 billion fine of 2009 was annulled in 2022 on the rebates; what survived were the 'naked restrictions' — payments to HP, Acer and Lenovo to delay or drop AMD-based products. The Commission re-fined those at €376 million in 2023, the General Court cut it to €237 million in December 2025, and Intel now appeals what is left.
The Digital Services Act lets the Commission bill very large platforms for the cost of supervising them, using a methodology it must lay down by delegated act. When it set Meta's and TikTok's fees it counted their users its own way, explained in an annex. The General Court annulled both decisions. The Commission appeals, saying an explanation is not a methodology.
Zalando told the Commission that 83 million people visit its store each month but that only 37% of what they see comes from third-party sellers — so only 31 million are 'recipients' of a platform. The Commission counted all of them. The General Court agreed. Zalando's appeal asks whether exposure to third-party content must be proved or may be presumed.
Amazon was designated a very large online platform under the Digital Services Act and lost its challenge in November 2025. It now tells the Court that a marketplace carries none of the 'systemic risks' the Act was written for, and that treating it like a social network breaches the Charter. The Commission has cross-appealed, saying the General Court should never have looked.
The Commission fined Qualcomm €242 million for selling baseband chipsets to Huawei and ZTE below cost to squeeze out Icera. The General Court trimmed the fine and upheld the rest. Qualcomm's seven-plea appeal is the Court's first chance in over a decade to say how predatory pricing is proved — and whether effects must be shown.
TikTok met every numerical threshold in the Digital Markets Act and was designated a gatekeeper in the Act's first wave. ByteDance says the presumptions can be rebutted and that the General Court made them impossible to rebut. The first DMA appeal to reach the Court of Justice will say how much a designated company may argue.
After a dawn raid at Red Bull's premises, the Commission carried on examining the copied data in Brussels for seven weeks. Nexans says it must then reimburse the 'additional costs' that continuation causes. The Commission paid the travel and hotels but not the lawyers; the General Court agreed. Red Bull appeals on what 'additional' means.
The Luxembourg General Court gave Google a pass in September 2024, knocking out the Commission’s whopping €1.49 bn fine; honestly, many of us in the tech risk sector expected a quick confirmation of the penalty, making this annulment a massive … Continue reading →