BRUSSELS, Feb 24 (Reuters) - U.S. chipmaker Nvidia ( NVDA )

has sued EU antitrust regulators for accepting an

Italian request last year to scrutinise its acquisition of AI

startup Run:ai, saying they had flouted an earlier court ruling

restricting their merger powers on minor deals.

While the case does not have any impact on the Run:ai deal

which was eventually approved by the EU competition watchdog in

December last year, a ruling favouring Nvidia ( NVDA ) may further curb

the regulator's merger power.

Businesses have been concerned in recent years with the

European Commission flexing a rarely-used power called Article

22 to assess small deals even though these are below the EU's

merger revenue threshold.

The EU executive says it is concerned about killer

acquisitions in which big companies buy startups to shut them

down, but companies criticise such moves as regulatory

over-reach.

Europe's highest court, however, in a landmark ruling in

September last year said the Commission cannot encourage or

accept referrals of deals without a European dimension from

national enforcers when the latter do not have the powers to

examine such deals under their own national laws.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) cited the ruling in its lawsuit filed with the

Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe's second-highest,

according to a filing on the court website.

"The decision unlawfully accepted a referral request from

the Italian Autorità Garante della Concorrenza (AGCM), regarding

a transaction that fell below the EU Merger Regulation and

member state merger control thresholds, based on the AGCM's

exercise of loosely defined, ex post, discretionary call-in

powers," Nvidia ( NVDA ) said.

It said regulators' decision to take up the Italian request

breaches principles of institutional balance, legal certainty,

proportionality and equal treatment.

The case is T-15/25 Nvidia ( NVDA ) v Commission.