News EU expected to fine Intel for anti-competitiveness

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2009/05/11/eu-expected-to-fine-intel-for-anti-competit/1

The EU is expected to announce this week that it will fine Intel for anti-competitive business practices that stretch back eight years.

 

Holy crap I had no idea Intel did that kind of stuff. I'm guessing €250 million, just a random figure out the air

 

max they can fine them is 10% or their turn-over for a year, which would be billions i think....

 

This is pretty clearly highly anticompetitive and a large fine seems justified to me. I wonder how much of the fine will go to AMD thought? Only seems fair after all...

 

problem is the only result this will have is to us is to hike chip prices up 10%.

well that and AMD will gain some market share problem is though is that AMD are not beating the crap out of intel now as they where 3years ago and the uptake on amd products will not be nearly as high as it could have been back then

maybe 10% more expensive chips is a small price to pay to see competition in the market in the next 3-5 years

 

In the end... proberly nothing, It's like when you get a parking ticket, i all goes to the state.

 

Everyone knows it's the OEM stuff that makes all the money, and by giving out cash incentives and similar for manufacturers to stock X amount of Intel over AMD, Intel effectively guaranteed its sales. I'm not sure if it's "anti-competitive" (more like as competitive as you can be) but it definitely stinks.

 

the reason it's classed as anti-competitive is because the alleged deals would have quickly evaporated had the retailers/manufacturers not got involved in the agreements - they'd end up paying (much) more for their Intel processors and AMD doesn't have the manufacturing capacity to fulfil the entire market like Intel does.

 

The entirety of the fine will go to the EU, as it is a fine, indeed a (rather big) parking ticket. The max is about 4,7B if i remember correctly from another source on the web where i saw this news discussed.

AMD will be sure to file a civil suit shortly after the EU Commission passes it's verdict though, and the fine from that suit will go 100% to AMD (and their lawyers). This one is far from over!

 

Always good to see anti-competitive practices punished, no matter which company does it. AMD suit will surely follow shortly, but it will take another 10 years, sadly the law works ridiculously slowly. I wonder when the EU vs. Microsoft suit will end, it's going for like what, 10 years now?

 

Intel is also under investigation in Korea and Japan for the same reasons... in the US the FTC and the state of New York have their own cases as well.

If Intel will get fined in EU it might have repercussions in the rest of the world too. Not mentioning that the fine in EU should be less than 10% of the $38 billion revenue... if the rest follow, it won be just a financial crisis year... but a plain s***** year for them.

 

No i dont think intel should be fined because its rule of the market, if you want to win in marketing make sure you are far away from your competitors and that is what intel has done.

 

After hearing this I'm going to rethink about what my next chip will be. I've been an AMD fanboy since I've built my first comp, I really wanted to get the I7 but after hearing this I can't justify it. Intel already has most of the market, including holding Apple by its balls. Will that ever be enough??

I'm probably going to pass the I7 and once again support the underdog.

GO AMD! Don't lose to the cheap shot giant!

 

You don't understand the market, Intel is using mob like strong arm tactics that make products more expensive for all. This isn't winning market share this is a willful criminal act to push competitors out of the market. Acts like this are why we have laws to prevent it and Intel probably made a business decision that the fines would be offset from the profits gained and the financial stifling of it's competitors. Thus leaving it in the technological lead. Those who pressed this policy at Intel should go to jail, it's the only tool to left to encourage ethical business practices since fines are just a hindrance to a particular quarter's bottom line.

 

I REALLY love it when the EU gives intel and microsoft a much needed spanking, kudos EU!

 

I think that if they do fine Intel, they should give most of the money to AMD, as it is AMD they have hurt most.

 

That practice isn't allowed for well established businesses... only for smaller ones!

 

And the scores are in! Fined a massive:

1.06bn euros / $1.45bn / £948m

Record fine, over 2x what microsoft had to pay! Eeek!