My thought
But think about this Intel, you're taking down someone else's business. That's not being fair to AMD AT ALL.
EU fined Intel a bit too much. I hope EU can at least give a few million dollars back to Intel. EU isn't being fair to Intel, but Intel isn't being fair to AMD.
My thought

To the best of my knowledge human rights only apply to natural persons, not juridical ones.

Not that it matters as it's just hot air over having the lid of the cookie jar slammed down on their fingers for once.

If it is true that one individual was responsible for the whole process, that's way too much power for one person to have.

"Neelie Kroe" should be "Neelie Kroes"
Now pay up you whining yanks!

Intel is actually suing the gov?!
They got balls.

i dont get why EU is suing and getting the money, when its AMD that was losing the money in the first place? anybody else think that sounds like another stupid lawsuit that somebody is trying to win to make some easy money?

What about Human Rights of consumers .any one take about it .

"Intel has long denied charges related to rebates offered as long as manufacturers agreed to obtain the majority of their processors from Intel as well as paying them to either to delay or cancel the launch of AMD based products and when ordered to pay the company maintained its actions were within legal boundaries and vowed to appeal the ruling."

When it's put like that i wonder if the EU still allows that practice with drug companies as a similar process is done there too.

They were probably just fed up with a bunch of frivolous suits. Can there be a class action suit against the EU?

The EU isn't suing them, it's fining them. When you get a fine for driving over the speed limit, that's not the city suing you. When you fined, the money doesn't got to the person you cut off in traffic.
Intel broke EU anti-competition laws, so they pay a fine.







anybody else think that sounds like another stupid lawsuit that somebody is trying to win to make some easy money?[/citation]

Manufacturers can choose AMD or Intel, they choose Intel cos Intel sells. A chip costs maybe $100 out of a $1000 computer. If you ask my parents to choose between a $1000 Intel computer and $900 AMD computer, they take Intel on any day. AMD don't have the market share, understand it and live with it.

stumpy you really don't know the facts at all. The anti competitive practices on which the fine is based took place years ago, back in the pentium 3 and original amd athlon days. Because Intel successfully suppressed AMD from gaining market share the entire course of the CPU future was probably altered.

Either way I also think the fine is bogus and way too late. AMD should be collecting the damages from this fine.

I also can't stand the EU as a political organization. Their suits against Intel and Microsoft drive me apeshit. Unfortunately the European market is so huge it can't just be ignored but then Euros wonder why they have to pay such extreme premiums for hardware and software. Look no farther than these fines to get a grasp why...

heres what i have to say to the eu and amd.

its called capitalism, bitch!

amd needs to make a better product if they want more of the market share. people dont wanna buy shit.

lol, the EU has forgotten about capitalism long ago.

let me be one, if not the first, to call BS. There are lots of "big decisions" made by a single person. Deal with it Intel, it's called karma, it could have been worse quit digging your hole while you're ahead.

Once again, where are the fines and repercussions against all of the European OEM distributors who accepted the bribes and colluded with Intel in the alleged anti-competitive behavior?

Seems like a one sided and limited retribution by the EU. Do you go after the person who PAID the hitman and let the hitman go? Where is the action being taken against the corrupt and evil distributors who participated in the behavior and also were responsible for locking AMD out of the market? I guess their actions are OK and not anti-competitive?

... how about the human rights of AMD?

Face facts people...AMD will never beat Intel at anything. AMD has been relegated to the low-mid level computer market with Intel being kind of the hill. Been that way for a while now and it's never going to change. Give me thumb downs all you want I don't care. Even THD's blatant bias doesn't fly anymore because Intel chips completely trounce AMD's.

Do I want AMD to go away? Of course not...they keep Intel's prices in line.

AMD ruined my beloved ATI. I always had an All-in-Wonder board in the machines I built even though NVIDIA boards were usually slightly faster. Now it's just sad... ATI is no more as far as I'm concerned.

The EU is just pathetic...they have a hard-on for going after anything from across the pond. I love how Microsoft is forcing the EU to do a clean install of W7..I cried I laughed so hard when I heard. The EU thought they had them by the short and curlys until Microsoft b*tch slapped the EU and walked away...haha

In my point of view a clean install is even better than an upgrade!!!
Who here doesn't love the performance you get out of a clean install...
Most of the people who'll be upgrading to win7 will have been using there vista for years, by then a clean install will be just the right thing to do.
Maybe it's just me but every time I've upgraded OSs eventually I had to do a clean install to get rid of all the trash it had been building up for years.
It's more time consuming but is has it's benefits.

Another thing, don't be so biased. Almost every comment here is biased by emotions, everyone as a right to like more a company but fair is fair.
I've had intel, amd, nvidia, ati... I buy what's right for me, be it best performance, best bang for the buck, whatever.

What's fair is fair, and if it's proven that intel broke EU anti-competition laws it has to pay up!!!

Don't let your judgment be clouded by emotions...

When you do what you want, and don't care for the law it's not called capitalism, it's called ANARCHY. Get your facts straight.

GO AMD! =]

And Intel is wrong. I'm sorry, but they do keep competition out of the market. Someone needs to put them in their place. I'm hoping AMD can still do that.

Another stupid idea from Intel after corrupting the whole distribution process to sell more Intel processors and assure AMD can't have access to more market. The EU fine brings justice to market and consumers.
This kind of behaviour from Intel is not admissible neither in the EU and neither in any part of the world.
Intel produces good products and thus should behave as a responsible company.

Intel is more important to me than the EU.
Sure what Intel did was morally wrong, but business is business. They do need a kick in the ass for sure... I'd rather see that money be put to serious use. Even if it meant giving $1,500,000,000 to AMD to spend in R&D...

You Americans really need to get out of your Bush area "us and them " mentality.. EU is not about going after big evil American company’s.. big evil European company’s get exactly the same treatment, you just have a very narrow gaze on the world. It’s called consumer protection. If that’s socialism.. well so be it.. Mccarthyism is evidently still thriving, everytime one lacks any sound argumentation.

Intel violated my human rights when they told me that the Pentium 4's Hyper Threading would be just as good as dual processors.

Unless I am mistaken I have not seen anyone in this comments section compare US/EU or "bush era mentality" except for you. Only comments on the EU fining Intel.

On that note, I agree completely with lvlouro and ohthehypocrisy. If your going to judge someone do it without your emotions getting in the way. I personally feel what Intel did was wrong but they did nothing any other business wouldn't try to do if they could get away with it. Let the law decide its fate.

I also think the EU needs to go after the other companies who accepted Intel's proposal. Those businesses are just as dirty as Intel. You don't just send the criminal mastermind to jail, you send everyone in involved. (Bad analogy i know but i couldn't think of anything better)

Slight side-comment here.

Computer components aren't more expensive in the EU due to companies being fined, they are more expensive due to the dollar currently being stronger than the euro and the generally higher taxes.

For example, here in Sweden the VAT is 25% for computer components. As compared to what, 7-15% in the US?

Also, I'd wager online stores shift an order of magnitude less inventory in a country with 9 million citizens than one with 300 million. Which needless to say will also affect pricing.

Intel is a capitalist company. Their main goal is to eliminate as much competition in order to gain maximum profit. Under the rule of Euro socialism, this does not apply.

Without laws governing what's fair competitive practices, and penalties for breaking those laws, the only companies that could actually profit would be those into arms manufacturing.

Believe it or not.. Corporations in the US have "human rights".. It was granted to them by an amendment.. Its just that if you looked at what corporations do and they were a person. You would probably seem them as on par with a serial murderer.. Since they only have one goal and its to make money. To tingle with the line of the law is something corporations do everyday..

@Phantom Trooper

The fine that the EU is imposing on Intel happened during a period of time that AMD did have the better product. There was a period of about 12 to 18 months that AMD had the fastest processor, and not just in GHz either.

Intel knew this so they used their influence to get companies to delay or not use AMD processors. If you notice it wasn't until after the Core 2 was out that Dell started really promoting that they had AMD processors also, but then it was too late the AMD processor was not the fastest.

Ask yourself another question. If Intel had the faster processor, why would they need to talk companies into delaying AMD processor based products?

god f-ing idiots human rights lkaws only apply to individuals not massive international corperations . and whoa re they to cry foul on this when they lay off workers all teh time jsut so thier executives don't lose a little bank