Intel and FTC Settle Antitrust Dispute

The Federal Trade Commission has been on Intel's heels for quite some time, after charges arose that the latter had been using anticompetitive practices meant to stifle the marketing performance of rivals such as Advanced Micro Devices, NVIDIA and VIA, among others. The lawsuit had been going on since December 2009, but not long ago it was revealed that talks between the two parties had come close to a conclusion, though Intel was given a short leeway to finalize them. Now, it appears that an agreement has finally been made.

Intel will have to modify its IP agreements in order to allow AMD, VIA and NVIDIA to consider mergers and joint ventures. Also, the chip giant has agreed to no longer offer special deals or place conditions to computer makers, such as forcing their hand into buying processors from it exclusively. The CPU maker will also have to never use threats, bundled prices and other offers in order to harm competition.

“This case demonstrates that the FTC is willing to challenge anticompetitive conduct by even the most powerful companies in the fastest-moving industries,” said Chairman Jon Leibowitz. “By accepting this settlement, we open the door to competition today and address Intel’s anticompetitive conduct in a way that may not have been available in a final judgment years from now. Everyone, including Intel, gets a greater degree of certainty about the rules of the road going forward, which allows all the companies in this dynamic industry to move ahead and build better, more innovative products.”

Intel will have to extend VIA's x86 licensing agreement until 2013 and maintain the PCI Express Bus for at least six more years. The company is also compelled to “disclose to software developers that Intel computer compilers discriminate between Intel chips and non-Intel chips, and that they may not register all the features of non-Intel chips.” It will also have to reimburse software vendors that wish to recompile their software on non-Intel computers. The full set of condition within the FTX settlement can be found in the official announcement.