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Intel's $1.3 Billion Fine In Europe Requires Review, Court Says (nytimes.com)
cdreimer writes: According to a report in The New York Times (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source), the Court of Justice in the European Union has ordered the lower courts to revisit the $1.3 billion anti-trust fine levied against Intel in 2009, giving hope to Google and other American technology firms to avoid being fined for being dominant in the EU markets. From the report: "The highest court in the European Union ordered on Wednesday that a $1.3 billion antitrust fine doled out against Intel nearly a decade ago be revisited, a ruling that could give hope to Google and other American technology giants facing challenges to their dominance in the region. The decision to send the case back to a lower court for re-examination is a blow to regional competition regulators, whose oversight of digital services has been among the world's most aggressive. It could also embolden American technology companies, which have long complained that antitrust officials in Europe target them unfairly, to challenge rulings and investigations against them. The move by the Court of Justice of the European Union raises the prospect that the 1.06 billion euro fine on Intel in 2009, equivalent to $1.26 billion at current exchange rates, could be reduced or scrapped entirely. The penalty -- at the time the largest of its kind -- was upheld by European courts in 2014 and will most likely be the subject of legal battles for years to come. That record fine was overtaken by a 2.4 billion euro penalty against Google in June. The Silicon Valley giant was accused of using its dominant position in online search to give preferential treatment to its internet shopping service over those of its rivals."
Will the fine have any impact on the market shares of any of the CPU manufacturers? Nope. Whom gets the money from the fine? AMD? Nope. ARM? Nope. Any other CPU maker - Qualcomm, Broadcomm, Atmel, Toshiba, Texas Instruments, IBM, Freescale? Nope. Any company who has been directly affected by their anti-competitive practices? Nope.
The EU gets all the money. Well that fixes everything, then. Good job, EU.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
Don't complain, at least you have fines. Here in America it typically works out to 12 cents per person involved, or 0.012% of profits, whichever is less. That is, if a fine is even happens.
giving hope to Google and other American technology firms to avoid being fined for being dominant in the EU markets.
Wong, just completely wrong. The fine was for illegal practices and abusing its dominant market position.
It could also embolden American technology companies, which have long complained that antitrust officials in Europe target them unfairly,
Yes its so unfair that bribery and donations to politicians doesn't work as well as in the US.
Let's recall how their treatment in the EU compares to the US: In the EU they have judicial process which merely threatens to impose fines if they continue with business as normal. In the US they were forced by government with no judicial process to licence IP to enable competitor AMD. Intel is free to cast it's IP to the wind to enable real competitive market. They no doubt prefer fines to doing that, though.
I don't see why Google giving out it's tech isn't a viable option. If anything their search is becoming progressively LESS useful to users due to being manipulated to suit Google's agenda. The underlying tech can be freed and administered by whoever willing/able to operate the required server farms, and who knows, actually deliver the best most accurate search without being clouded by corrupt interests.
I'd bang that.
I notice a trend of the summary stating ' the source may be pay-walled, here's an alternate source'. Why not simply skip the pay-walled source?
Requiem for the American Dream
It's just the American way. The free market in operation. It would be anti-American to punish a Intel for this, just read the other comments to see that's true.
Requiem for the American Dream
I misread your post as 'blah blah, I encourage you to censor me to -1, blah blah.'
Requiem for the American Dream
They no doubt prefer fines to doing that, though.
The fine in this case was around 25% of the profit they made that year. Anyone would rather take the IP licensing deal than hand over that kind of money.
The UK is a dictatorship. Its head of state and the members of the House of Lords are unelected and cannot be removed by the people.
Can't you read ? The judgement was about uncompetitive behaviour in 2009 - at that time Intel was pretty much dominant in the server and desktop markets.
The situation may have changed since but that doesn't make them any less liable for what they did in 2009. Imagine a thief that did a bank robery in 2009 and since then he is an honorable person, working hard and contributing to society. He is still liable for what he did in the past, even if his behaviour changed (and Intel hasn't really changed their behavior - the market has changed towards mobile).
Is author of this garbage news post retarded? or being paid by Intel?
Intel was fined for DIRECTLY BRIBING computer manufacturers/resellers in exchange for not selling AMD parts.
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
No problem, as philosopher Dirty Harry said, A man's gotta know his limitations.
Requiem for the American Dream
For those who think the EU is anti US, they are not. It is just that the US companies keep breaking the law.
Perhaps European brewers (Carslberg, Heineken and AB InBev as the largests) should start selling beer to people of the age where it is legal in the home country of that company and then say that the US is after EU companies.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
The same person, obviously.
Claus
Someone is enjoying their new house and pension fund. With Intel inside!
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
It was the EUs market which was damaged by the actions of the company, why should anyone else get the money?
You could make an argument that the EU was indirectly affected by Intel's practices, as it did restrict competition but it didn't make it impossible to buy computers with AMD chips. They were available, just less available than Intel systems. At worst, it was inconvenient to buy an AMD based system.
AMD was DIRECTLY affected by this practice. Not being able to sell their chips to a few major computer manufacturers directly impacted their market share.
So if you measured the impact, in my opinion, the customer's damages would be, maybe, a few million dollars. What was the ultimate impact - you couldn't buy an HP laptop with an AMD processor? You had to buy a Dell or Lenovo? Does the average consumer care that much?
Now, if you are talking about a billion dollars in damages, that sounds like the effects of AMD's loss of market share. So why isn't AMD getting any of the money?
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
Uhh.. A man's got to know his limitations.
Requiem for the American Dream
No, ARM is fading fast in the server market, there were predictions of double digit market penetration but they've come to nothing. They're literally a rounding error in the graphs and that's by unit sales, by profits they're not even worth mentioning. As far as total CPU market, Intel's still the leader in revenue if you discount Apple (they don't sell a CPU, they sell a complete device and software ecosystem).
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
would be great if one day the US could contribute something to the world
Did you post this from your iPhone? From a Dell computer? or from one of those highly successful European devices like... like... well there's so many of them.
People like you remind me of native americans who "reject" the white man way of life and insist on keeping their culture intact, while driving snowmobiles, pickup trucks and wearing jeans.
lucm, indeed.
What you describe is exactly what the US have been doing for years: taking foreign companies to one of their kangaroo courts and grab a few hundred million dollars, or, if possible, a couple of billions for some arbitrary violation, often not even in US jurisdiction.
Name three instances of that.
lucm, indeed.
that do-hickey that makes the iPhone go
Sorry, I don't speak European. Please use real English if you want normal people to understand you.
lucm, indeed.