Intel fined $1.45 billion in Europe

This is huge — in a complaint filed by AMD to the European Commission, Intel was found in violation of anti-trust rules in Europe. The EU demands that Intel stop its unethical business practices and pay a fine of $1.145 billion.

The commission states that Intel was playing an unfair game against competitors, namely AMD.

… Intel paid computer makers to postpone or cancel plans to launch products that used AMD chips, paid illegal, secret rebates so computer makers would use mostly or entirely Intel chips, and paid a major retailer to stock only computers with its chips.

intel Europe has been known to be very vigilant/strict against multi-national companies. Before this $1.45 billion ruling, Microsoft was fined about $680 million for similar anti-trust cases years back.

Intel Corporation president and CEO Paul Otellini denies this ruling and says they will file an appeal.

Last quarter, Intel made a net income of $647 million from reported revenues of $7.1 billion. If the fine sticks, it could totally wipe out Intel’s income for the rest of the year.

{ via Canada.com and Earth Times }

Update: AMD sent out a press statement:

â€œAfter an exhaustive investigation, the EU came to one conclusion â€“ Intel broke the law and consumers were hurt,â€ said Tom McCoy, AMD executive vice president for legal affairs. â€œWith this ruling, the industry will benefit from an end to Intel’s monopoly-inflated pricing and European consumers will enjoy greater choice, value and innovation.â€

The EC decision stated specifically that:

â€œIntel gave wholly or partially hidden rebates to computer manufacturers on condition that they bought all, or almost all, their x86 CPUs from Intelâ€.
â€œIntel made payments to major retailer Media Saturn Holding from October 2002 to December 2007 on condition that it exclusively sold Intel-based PCs in all countries in which Media Saturn Holding is active.â€œ
Intel â€œinterfered directly in the relations between computer manufacturers and AMD. Intel awarded computer manufacturers payments – unrelated to any particular purchases from Intel – on condition that these computer manufacturers postponed or cancelled the launch of specific AMD-based products.â€

Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

https://www.yugatech.com

8 Comments

Juan Dela Cruz says:

16 years ago

Same old dirty sales strategy applied by INTEL ;)

“Maliliit na chip maker ating tangkilikin pareho din naman ang teknolohiya sa presyong kaaya-aya, bat nga naman hindi di ba?”

peace!
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Darren says:

16 years ago

it’s an inevitable issue when a corporate is too big

Microsoft is too. LOL
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Karl Mac says:

16 years ago

Hmmm… That’s probably why intel’s chips are more expensive…
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JP Caparas says:

16 years ago

This is definitely an incredulous issue. As said, Intel only made $647 last year; if they don’t resolve this soon, they’re probably file for bankruptcy (if ever the courts don’t reduce the fine).

Anti-trust cases are everywhere. Spanning from software to hardware manufacturers, there’s no telling if even the complainant (AMD) has some dirty laundry.

I’m not against Intel or anything, but could the courts cut them some slack. Intel has already cut off thousands of employees at the nucleus of the recession and now this. Thousands more might end up losing their households if the appeal is thwarted.
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domob17 says:

16 years ago

It’s not a small fine, but it’s probably nowhere near what AMD lost through several years of Intel’s dirty tricks.
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gio says:

16 years ago

morality has nothing to do with the quality of their product hehe
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rene says:

16 years ago

If intel is doing this racket then it simply means that either they do not believe in their product or their product is inferior to AMD.
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VIctor says:

16 years ago

This adds up to the reason why I dont like Intel based products and love AMD based products more. In any kind of business, there will always be good karma and bad karma (depends on what these companies “do”..)
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