EU Commission to Rule Against Intel This Week

Following an extensive antitrust case between the European Union and Intel, the world's leading manufacturer of computer processors, recent reports claim that the EU Commission is just days away from fining Intel for anti-competitive behavior. The EU regulators are expected to demand Intel to pay a considerably large fine and change its business practices for having violated antitrust rules. EU investigation into the affairs of the world's leading chip maker goes back to 2001, when Intel's biggest rival, AMD, filed a complaint.

 

The EU Commission's most recent investigation into Intel's antitrust practices goes back to July last year, when Chipzilla was accused of having provided rebates to a retailer, which would be expected to sell only Intel-based computer systems. In addition, the Santa Clara, California-based Intel was said to have paid an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to delay the launch of a line of AMD-based products, enabling the former to gain the upper hand over its main competitor, AMD. These are the main accusations that will be taken into consideration by the upcoming ruling of the EU Commission.

 

According to a recent report by Reuters, citing sources familiar with the case, the EU Commission is expected to rule that Intel abused its dominant position in the market in impairment of AMD. For the two violations that will be noted by the EU Commission, Intel is expected to be faced with an unspecified fine, which could likely be over that of the 497 million euros demanded by the EU Commission from Microsoft.

 

Intel hasn't yet officially commented on the news-story but, during the long investigation, the company claimed that it had been wrongly accused, as it had done nothing wrong. However, the upcoming EU Commission ruling is just one of the legal disputes between Intel and various market regulators worldwide.