That’s the allegation it faces in the EU which, according to Reuters, has completed its antitrust investigation and it’s expected that the European Commission will reveal its decision to fine Intel on Wednesday and order the company to change its business practices, which the EU believes have been illegal for a period stretching back eight years.
European competition authorities are expected to release their verdict on Intel’s allegedly anti-competitive behaviour this week, and it’s not looking good for the chip maker.
The Commission’s decision was sent to national bodies in April and will be presented to the Commission on Wednesday. The court is widely expected to find Intel guilty of anticompetitive behaviour.
‘Steely’ Neelie Kroes, Europe’s Competition Commissioner, can fine Intel up to ten per cent of its annual turnover, which would mean a $3.8bn penalty. That would beat the €1.35bn fine, the previous largest, which Microsoft agreed to pay.
According to Reuters, the EC is expected to find Intel guilty of anti-competitive practices on two counts. The first violation will say that Intel gave rebates to computer manufacturers to obtain exclusivity or to restrict the use of competing chips from AMD and that it provided other incentives to retailers who chose to sell only Intel-based machines.
The second finding will state that Intel paid PC manufacturers to delay or scrap the launch of AMD-based products and that these payments have restricted competition in the market.
These violations allowed Intel to set the percentages of the market that it wanted to control. For example, NEC was told that 20 percent of its desktop and notebook machines could be AMD-based, while all Lenovo notebooks (and relevant Dell products) had to use Intel chips. 95 percent of HP’s business desktop machines had to be Intel-based.
The Commission will order Intel to end those rebates and incentive programmes which it deems illegal by a specific date. Both Intel and the European Commission declined to comment on the rumours, and Intel has repeatedly said that it has done nothing wrong. We’ll have to wait until Wednesday to find out if Intel will be fined for anti-competitive business practices.
The case has been dragging on since 2000 when AMD made its complaint. Last year Intel and Dixons offices across Europe were raided by competition investigators.The chip giant is accused of offering original equipment manufacturers and retailers rebates and marketing funds if they agreed not to carry products using chips from rival AMD.Intel asked for more time to respond to the Commission’s Statement of Objections back in January, the EC refused.
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