BRUSSELS, Oct 24 (Reuters) -

The EU Court of Justice, Europe's top court, ruled on

Thursday in favour of Intel ( INTC ), ending a nearly

two-decade-long fight between the U.S. chipmaker and EU

regulators who had said it had tried to thwart a rival.

"The Court of Justice dismisses the Commission's appeal,

thereby upholding the judgment of the General Court," the court

said.

The European Commission had fined Intel ( INTC ) for giving rebates

to computer makers Dell, Hewlett-Packard Co, NEC

and Lenovo ( LNVGF ) for buying most of their chips

from Intel ( INTC ), which regulators said was an attempt to block

Advanced Micro Devices.

Regulators generally oppose rebates offered by dominant

companies because they fear they may be anticompetitive, while

companies say enforcers must prove discounts have

anticompetitive effects before companies are sanctioned.

EU regulators had initially fined Intel ( INTC ) 1.06 billion euros

($1.14 billion) but a lower tribunal scrapped that.

Intel's ( INTC ) case was boosted earlier this year when an adviser

to the court said regulators had not properly performed an

economic analysis.

($1 = 0.9285 euros)