Intel fined $1.45bn by European Commission
filed in Business & Finance by Shahan on May.13, 2009 at 15:05
Chipmaker Intel today has been fined $1.34bn by the European Commission for anti-competitive activities.
The European Commission found that Intel paid manufactures and retailers to support its products over those of its competitor AMD. These anti-competitive practises took place between 2002 and 2007.
For Intel to do this and get away with it for so long is disgraceful. I believe they stopped in 2007 knowing that they had enough market share to sustain and grow further support by other manufactures and retailers. I’ve seen the affects that this has had on consumers. Consumers often ask questions such as “AMD are found and used in so few machines, they must be not good enough to be used as widely as Intel.”
I am an avid AMD user and have been for many years. They produce as good chips as Intel often beating them to new technologies in the chip market.
It is a very high price to pay for their activities. Hopefully this will deter other organisations from doing the same.
Here is a BBC interview with the European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.
Source: BBC News.
