Intel attacked the European Commission for being unfair in a probe that led to a record 1.06 billion-euro ($1.2 billion) fine. The key issue in the investigation was loyalty rebates to lower retail prices, Daniel Beard, a lawyer for Intel, told the European Union’s Court of Justice in Luxembourg on Tuesday. But the European Commission failed to analyze “all relevant circumstances” to see if the rebates shut out rivals, he said.

The chipmaker is making a final attempt to overturn the penalty doled out in 2009 for unfairly squeezing out Advanced Micro Devices Inc. No date for a ruling has been set.

Two years ago, the EU General Court rejected Intel’s first appeal.

The Intel case concerns whether a company with a very large market share "can pursue a commercial strategy, the focus of which is the marginalization or even the elimination of its only competitor," the commission’s lawyer Nicholas Khan told the court Tuesday.

The evidence shows that the rebates prevented computer makers from seeking out lower prices "that might have been available," he said.

The EU’s antitrust regulator in its decision said Intel had obstructed competition by giving rebates to computer makers from 2002 until 2005 on the condition that they buy at least 95 percent of chips for personal computers from Intel. Intel then imposed “restrictive conditions” for the remaining 5 percent, supplied by AMD, which struggled to overcome its rival’s hold on the market for PC processors, the EU said.