EU Fines Intel Record 1.06 Bln Euros

EU Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes shows a computer component while talking to the media during a joint press conference at the EU Commission headquarter in Brussels, Wednesday May 13, 2009. [Photo: Xinhuanet/Reuters]

The European Commission (EC) said here on Wednesday that it had fined the Intel Corp. a record 1.06 billion euros (1.44 billion U.S. dollars) for illegally blocking competition in the microchip market.

The EC, the executive arm of the European Union, said that the world's biggest computer chip maker used illegal sales tactics to squeeze rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) out of market.

The fine was much higher than the 899-million-euro fine the EC gave to Microsoft Corp. last year in monopoly case.

The Commission said that the U.S. chip maker Intel violated the EU competition rule by exploiting its dominant position with a deliberate strategy to keep AMD out of the market.

It said Intel blocked legal competition by giving rebates to computer manufacturers Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and NEC for purchasing their x86 computer processing units, or CPUs, from Intel and paid them to stop or delay the launch of computers based on AMD chips.

Besides, it said that Intel paid Germany's biggest electronics retailer Media Saturn Holding from 2002 to 2007 to only stock Intel-based computers, leaving workers at AMD's biggest European plant in Dresden unable to buy AMD-based personal computers in their own city store.

"Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years," said the EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.

Such a serious and sustained violation of the EU's antitrust rules cannot be tolerated, he said.

The EC demanded Intel to cease the illegal practices immediately, saying that it would see to it that Intel was obeying.

The fine on the chipmaker was based on the value of its illegal chip sales over the past five years and three months in Europe, the EC said.

Intel began to give rebates to computer manufacturers and retailers in 2002 and most ended in 2005, said the commission.

Source: CRIEnglish