Europe’s top court is likely to rule on Intel’s (INTC.O) appeal against a record 1.06 billion euro ($1.19 billion) EU antitrust fine next year, an EU judge said on Monday, a case that may affect companies such as Google (GOOGL.O) and Qualcomm (QCOM.O) in the EU’s crosshairs.The European Commission hit Intel with the record penalty seven years ago, accusing it of trying to stifle rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) by giving rebates to PC makers Dell [DI.UL], Hewlett-Packard Co (HPE.N), NEC (6701.T) and Lenovo (0992.HK) for buying most of their computer chips from Intel.The U.S. chipmaker subsequently challenged the decision at the Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe’s second highest.Judges rejected its arguments in 2014, saying the Commission had not acted too harshly in handing down the sanction amounting to 4.15 percent of Intel’s 2008 turnover against a possible maximum of 10 percent. The company then appealed to the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ).

EU antitrust regulators are likely to impose a record fine on Alphabet (GOOGL.O) unit Google over its shopping service as soon as Tuesday, two people familiar with the matter said on Monday, concluding one of three cases against the company.The European Commission’s case was triggered by scores of complaints from both U.S. and European rivals, leading to a seven-year-long investigation into the world’s most popular internet search engine.The EU competition authority charged Google in April 2015 with distorting internet search results to favor its shopping service, harming both rivals and consumers.The Commission declined to comment.Google said: ”We continue to engage constructively with the European Commission and we believe strongly that our innovations in online shopping have been good for shoppers, retailers and competition.”

Frågan om USA:s regering har rätt att få tillgång till data lagrad utanför landets gränser är långt ifrån över. I början av året konstaterade en domstol att så inte var fallet, en månad senare sa en annan domare tvärt om. Visserligen två olika fall, men det visar ändå på den juridiska snårigheten kring frågan. Och svaret, när det väl kommer, kan få ringar på vattnet inom hela teknik- och it-sektorn.

Det är det amerikanska justitiedepartementet som tagit frågan till USA:s högsta domstol. Departementets jurister säger att de, med ett giltigt domstolsbeslut i ryggen, har rätt till data som lagras på servar runt om i världen oavsett var de servrarna står.