EU slaps a record fine on Intel
EU slaps a record fine on Intel
Earlier in the week we told you how Intel were on the verge of receiving a huge fine from the European Commision. Well today the world’s leader in silicon innovation received a staggering 1.06bn euros ($1.45bn; £948m) fine for anti-competitive practices. The fine overshadows that of Microsoft’s 497m euro fine in 2004 for abusing its dominant market position.
The investigation dates back to 2000 when AMD alleged that Intel had paid computer manufacturers including Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and NEC not to use AMD chips in Europe. The Ruling declared that Intel had indeed been giving hidden rebates to manufacturers who chose to use only Intel processors in their systems, and a retailer had also been paid off to sell computers containing Intel chips only.
“Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years,” said Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.”
Such a serious and sustained violation of the EU’s antitrust rules cannot be tolerated.”
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