Intel criticizes EU fine

Intel in European Union court files today fought against the recently imposed $1.45 billion fine for its alleged antitrust violations. The American processor designer believed the European Commission didn't provide enough evidence that Intel practices hurt AMD's European PC business in an "immediate, substantial" way. It instead claimed that AMD was actually gaining share for some of the five-year period covered by the fine and that AMD's struggles were linked more to specific PC builders and regions.

The antitrust case accused Intel of using its dominance of the processor market in Europe to squeeze AMD out between 2002 and 2007. Among its tactics, the company purportedly engaged in unfair "dumping" by charging PC vendors much less for processors than AMD could afford to match. It may also have directly paid more influential vendors to use Intel chips for most or all of their systems, and may have discouraged retailers from stocking AMD-based systems.

Intel has already formally appealed against the fine, but added in its more public challenge that, even if the verdict were upheld, the fine was "disproportionate" to the actual damage done.

The European case isn't the only one Intel has faced in recent years. It has already been forced to change its behavior in Japan and South Korea and is in the middle of ongoing investigations by the US Federal Trade Commission and New York state following similar complaints.

By Electronista Staff

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AMD, Intel, computers, industry, European Commission, lawsuits