EU Slaps Intel With Formal Antitrust Charges

Posted by Zonk on Friday July 27, 2007 @02:22AM from the they-do-ed-it dept.

castrox writes "Intel is now facing a prolonged legal battle in the European Union for engaging in anti-competitive practices. The courts allege that Intel made at least one arrangement in Germany to ensure that PC manufacturers could only use their products. From the article: 'The investigation in Europe has been going on for a long time. Intel's European offices were raided by EU investigators in 2005. Last year, AMD filed a formal complaint with the Bundeskartellamt, the German Federal Cartel Office, accusing a German and Intel of entering into an agreement under which the German retailer would only sell Intel PCs in exchange for undisclosed payments from Intel. The EC quickly took over that investigation from the Bundeskartellamt.'"

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Re:Punishments. by ttnb · 2007-07-27 02:45 · Score: 3, Informative

The punishments for such infractions are obviously not high enough.
Yes.. if fact maybe the main problem is a lack of conherence and predictability in antitrust presecution and antitrust judgements. See the paper "The Incoherence of Punishment in Antitrust" by S. W. Waller, Chicago-Kent Law Review, Vol. 78, p. 207, 2003.
It is more likely they looked at previous (MS) antitrust settlements and decided that an anti-competitive strategy was an attractive move for execs and shareholders alike.
Yes :-(
Official links by Dekortage · 2007-07-27 02:54 · Score: 3, Informative

Read 'em yourselves: EU's official statement and Intel's official response.

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