The EU's top court has referred the €1 billion Intel antitrust case back to a lower court (INTC, 6701, 992)

Thomson Reuters

LUXEMBOURG, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Europe's top court on Wednesday told a lower court to re-examine U.S. chipmaker Intel's appeal against a 1.06-billion-euro ($1.3 billion) EU antitrust fine.

"The Court of Justice sets aside the judgment of the General Court, which had upheld the fine of 1.06 billion euros imposed on Intel by the Commission for abuse of a dominant position," the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice (ECJ) said.

"The case is referred back to the General Court in order for it to examine the arguments put forward by Intel concerning the capacity of the rebates at issue to restrict competition," the ECJ said.

The General Court in its 2014 ruling upheld the European Commission's 2009 decision but last year an court adviser recommended backing Intel's arguments.

The Commission handed down the fine, a record at the time, reasoning that Intel had tried to block rival Advanced Micro Devices by giving rebates to PC makers Dell, Hewlett-Packard Co, NEC and Lenovo for buying most of their computer chips from Intel.

(Reporting by Michele Sinner and Philip Blenkinsop, writing by Foo Yun Chee)