EU Fines Intel a Record 1.06 Billion Euro
Chip giant Intel was handed a record fine of 1.06 billion Euro ($1.45 billion) for allegedly abusing its leading position in the CPU market.
“The decision is wrong and ignores the reality of a highly competitive microprocessor marketplace” commented Intel CEO Paul Otellini, adding that "Intel never sells products below cost. We have however, consistently invested in innovation, in manufacturing and in developing leadership technology. The result is that we can discount our products to compete in a highly competitive marketplace”. Sounds like its business as usual for Intel.
The EU report reads rather differently. The commission accuses the company of abusing its market position between 2002 and 2007, claiming Intel made generous payments to PC manufacturers and retailers to boycott AMD chips. Dell, Acer, HP, Lenovo and NEC were among the companies linked to Intel's malpractice.
According to the European Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kroes, "Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years. Such a serious and sustained violation of the EU's antitrust rules cannot be tolerated". As can be expected, AMD is happy with the decision, even if the record figure is still below the sum the EU could have demanded. Intel is set to appeal.
Issue 192/2016
Buy this issue as a PDF
News
-
Nextcloud Announces Raspberry Pi-Powered Home Cloud Box
Innovative system adds a hard drive and Ubuntu Core to the RPi for an IoT hub.
-
Linus Torvalds Confirms the Date of the First Linux Release
Linux is two weeks younger than we thought!
-
End of OpenOffice?
The Apache Software Foundation considers retiring OpenOffice
-
Adobe Gives New Life to NPAPI Plugin for Linux
Adobe won’t kill the plugin in 2017
-
LinuxCon North America Convenes in Toronto, Canada
Linux Foundation's big event celebrates the 25th anniversary of Linux
-
Linux Turns 25
Linux has evolved from “won’t be a professional” project to one of the most professional software projects in the history of computers.
-
Mirantis Joins Hands with SUSE To Offer RHEL Support; Red Hat Not Happy
Competitors get in the game with RHEL without Red Hat
-
Linux on Windows 10 Poses a Security Risk
Security researchers have already notified Microsoft; some fixes are available
-
Mirantis to Refactor OpenStack Fuel for Kubernetes
The company is collaborating with Google and Intel to use Kubernetes as an engine for Fuel
-
Canonical Joins Document Foundation Advisory Board
The upcoming release of LibreOffice will be available as a snap package