EU slaps a record fine on Intel

Source: BBC News

Computer chipmaker Intel has been fined a record 1.06bn euros ($1.45bn; £948m) by the European Commission for anti-competitive practices.

It dwarfs the 497m euro fine levied on Microsoft in 2004 for abusing its dominant market position.

The Commission found that between 2002 and 2007, Intel had paid manufacturers and a retailer to favour its chips over those of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Intel has announced that it will appeal against the verdict.

"Intel takes exception to this decision. We believe the decision is wrong and ignores the reality of a highly competitive microprocessor market," Intel chief executive Paul Otellini said.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8047546.stm

I am so tired of iTunes.

Source: Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) -- The European Union fined Intel Corp. a record euro1.06 billion ($1.45 billion) on Wednesday and ordered the world's biggest maker of computer chips to stop illegal sales tactics that shut out Silicon Valley rival AMD.
The fine, which exceeded a euro899 million monopoly abuse penalty imposed on Microsoft Corp. last year, was denounced by Intel, which plans to appeal to an EU court within 60 days.
AMD's stock jumped in midday trading Wednesday, while Intel shares were up slightly.
"Given that Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for over five years, the size of the fine should come as no surprise," said EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.


Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_EU_INTEL?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-05-13-17-20-47

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E-mails and statements from businesses, some seized during surprise raids showed that Intel gave rebates to computer manufacturers if they bought all or most of their chips from Intel.

Intel makes the better CPU, they did not need to resort to underhanded tactics.

Yes, better. Even before the Phenom their CPUs wiped AMD off the screen. Then came Phenom and Intel didn't have to do a thing; their performance and power consumption leads were still considerable.

A shame Intel did this, but it won't stop me from continuing to use their products. I know of far worse things a company can do.

Even before AMD released the Phenom, Intel was putting out superior microchips. Phenom didn't change too much, as the benchmarks readily concluded.

(www.tomshardware.com has a breadth of articles and benchmarks of real tasks; not just static benchmarks.)

When these fines are levied by governments, it seems to me a healthy portion should always be set aside for the injured party - at least to the tune of actual damages. If the EU courts didn't have a number in mind, the wouldn't have been able to come up with a settlement figure.

However, from what I've seen, the injured party is always expected to be content with the ruling. That doesn't work for the people who are dead (tobacco, asbestos and drug corps.) or investors of companies who have already been forced out of business because unfair practices were allowed to go on for too long.