In a challenging curveball from the European legislative body, the gargantuan semiconductor company, Intel will go to court to defend itself for allegedly ignoring antitrust regulations.

On Friday, European Commission officials met to discuss the issue, and now they are prepared to bring the issue before the European College of Commissioners, the next check in the legislative process. After that, Intel gets to respond to the challenges, and potentially faces staggering monetary losses.

Intel’s disregard of the European antitrust regulations is an eight-year old issue which dates back to their spat with AMD in 2000. Intel purportedly tried to shut down the competition by subsidizing computer manufacturers for not buying AMD chips. Instead,

Intel drove their own prices down—so low that they were below cost—only to keep the competition away from Intel’s wish-list target markets. The strategy worked. Intel captured those big-name accounts and drove the prices back up to customary costs. In addition, some accuse Intel of blatantly paying retail chains to sell only Intel-installed products.

Obviously, such actions would warrant a second-look by trust-busting hounds. The European Union first filed complaint in 2007, but has since garnered additional charges that are expected to be part of Wednesday’s philippic against the California-based chip-maker.

Anti-trust laws are very complex items indeed. And filing said charges is no simple matter. That’s why the EU has taken a very long time in composing their case and in submitting it. This particular case could be bigger than any other in European history.