Intel Fined Record $1.45B in European Antitrust Case
The European Commission has fined Intel a record $1.45 billion for using anti-competitive practices to keep competitor Advanced Micro Devices out of the market for computer chips.
Intel was accused of paying computer makers and retailers not to carry AMD products, according to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Intel’s general counsel, Bruce Sewell, told Dow Jones Newswires that the company would appeal. “We completely disagree” with the commission’s findings, he said.
Previously the record fine for similar conduct in the European Union was $677 million at today’s exchange rates against Microsoft in 2004. The Times writes that the Intel fine “is another reminder of the emergence of European regulators as some of the world’s most activist enforcers of antitrust law, and it is a further sign authorities all over the world are raising the stakes for the biggest technology companies.”
