Intel Fined $1.45 Billion by EU in Antitrust Dispute

Intel Fined $1.45 Billion by EU in Antitrust Dispute

www.bloomberg.com

May 13 (Bloomberg) -- Intel Corp., the world’s biggest computer-chip maker, was fined a record 1.06 billion euros ($1.45 billion) by the European Union for using rebates to thwart competitors.

Following an eight-year investigation, the European Commission found that Intel impeded competition by giving rebates to computer makers that buy all or almost all of their chips from Intel. The penalty is the biggest antitrust fine in the 27-nation EU’s history, more than double the 497 million- euro penalty against Microsoft Corp. in 2004.

(visit the link for the full news article)

read a whole article.

frankly, I was thinking about this for a while and I find it pretty funny that the EU fined the Intel cause: (from the source)

“Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years,” EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement in Brussels. “Such a serious and sustained violation of the EU’s antitrust rules cannot be tolerated.”

but the money as I belive won't go to the customers but sooner or later to collapsing banks.

and Intel to get the money back will have to rise the prices. so finally we will pay to the government the fine for that "harm".

www.bloomberg.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Originally posted by czacza1


but the money as I belive won't go to the customers but sooner or later to collapsing banks.

and Intel to get the money back will have to rise the prices. so finally we will pay to the government the fine for that "harm".

www.bloomberg.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

No you're wrong she expliclty said the money will go to the member states and the European taxpayers, The consumers..
The money will not to Brussels nor Frankfurt..

and if Intel raises the prices while strangeling the computer producers, the fine will only get higher next time..

[edit on 13-5-2009 by Foppezao]

"the Europen Commission found..."

lol. yeah, intel is going to pay 1.4 billion to european countries. lol

Originally posted by czacza1
and Intel to get the money back will have to rise the prices. so finally we will pay to the government the fine for that "harm".

They could try!!

The doors will be thrown wide open for the competition, which basically only consists of one player right now, AMD (man I be they are partying right now )

And lets face it, AMD have had to get pretty sharp on their business model and advertising and such to compete with Intel... They won't have to be putting up their costs.

I've been running my first AMD processor for about 6 months now - I only got it cos it was a bargen on ebay (mother board combo) but it's been a great machine, stable fast does everything I need.

Originally posted by ScreamtheDance
"the Europen Commission found..."

lol. yeah, intel is going to pay 1.4 billion to european countries. lol

I don't give them much change with their appeal at the European Court... the court could even use judicial precedent of the Microsoft case [which the later lost]


the more strange i find it that there's no American antitrust agency challenging such monopolies in their market?

[edit on 13-5-2009 by Foppezao]

reply to post by Foppezao


money will go to member countries .so it will go to the same budget as the taxes you pay - that is correct. so it means it is going to go to "taxpeyers". but first of all not to the ones who bought the intel and second it will only higher amounts given to the budget beneficients. and who is it? right now - banks.

trust me. I prefer the american way of dealing with it. it is court action taken by the victims of such a practices who are getting compensations. in EU the court would never charge the company with such a fine due to the claim coming from the victim. fines are high only when they see they can have the money

reply to post by Foppezao


American antitrust laws are different from European antitrust laws, which is why you won't see the same type of challenge in America.

From www.spiegel.de...

But one of the key differences in European and American antitrust law is that while both examine the competitive impact of company behavior on consumers, Europe also considers its impact -- real or potential -- on rivals.

The differences between European and American antitrust rules and enforcement have been a source of trans-Atlantic friction in recent years, especially after Mario Monti scotched General Electric's attempted takeover of Honeywell and then dropped the hammer on Microsoft.

... how many securities do u think the banks have bought from eu?

Originally posted by Foppezao

the more strange i find it that there's no American antitrust agency challenging such monopolies in their market?

Intel dont have the market tide up as tight here, as mentioned above there is always AMD which is a good competitor.

They make great chips.
AMD and ATI make great combos but so does Intel and NVIDIA for gaming