Is the EU gonna give AMD some of that money?

Na, this is part of their "stimulus package". AMD will have to sue Intel themselves to get a cut.

Not sure if I understand totally, but does that mean Intel aren't allowed to sell their chips cheap to make us happy?

"The European Commission said Intel’s pricing practices were an attempt to drive AMD out of the market"

Welcome to the free market! Or not. I will never be able to understand why any non-private organisation can hand out fines or other penalties to private companies for being competitive.

Intel wants to make money. They'll make more money if AMD goes bankrupt. The consumer doesn't win, but the market does.

There is no such thing as a regulated free market. EU, you have to pick which you desire the most.

Seems silly that EU courts are involved in a spat between two US based companies, especially handing out fines.

They should make a ruling but enforce no penalties. The ruling should do nothing more than give AMD the opportunity to file a claim for compensation.

The EU benefiting looks like nothing more than government sticking its hand in the US cookie jar.

If the EU was giving this money directly to the company that was affected, then I wouldnt have much of a problem with it. The problem I have with this is that the EU is going to fine them $1.3b and keep it for the EU. They dont care one iota about "illegal rebates", this is purely a grab for money. Also how come we dont hear anything about the retailers who accepted these "illegal rebates"? Could it be because they are European companys whose pockets are not too deep?

get over it EU

Dear Americans, Amd is not a American company. The main seat of Amd is in Germany Dresden, where a big factury is also seated. (or was)

This makes the whole thing a Euro-American topic. Since the American company Intel acted illegaly, damaging an European Company (Amd), and thereby neglected European law, they have to pay for it.

Some of the money already reached Amd because Amd got money from the German state.

So please don't complain about Europe taking away American money, because it's an American company which tries to outcompete a European company with illegal actions!

No, Intel was effectively paying the retailers and manufacturers to buy and use their processors. Most of that would not have been passed on to the customers although there's a chance it could have.

No market is completly free and should not be completly free. That is why all countries have anti-mopolistic laws.

To those saying that the fine is for having low prices, this is not true. The fine is for unfair business practices. A couple examples of things they were doing: Paying companies like HP and Dell money to push Intel chips, keep low stock of AMD, and don't get in the latest model. They also did this sort of thing with OEMs like newegg and such .. but in the EU. They would pay the company a bunch of money to be Intel exclusive, or have the staff push their chips and talk trash about the competition.

Not any more now that the FOUNDRYCOMPANY owns those fabs not AMD. I guess it should be a UAE/EU thing now huh? Fact is, its US owned.

Some of these allegations date back to the 1990's before the EC was even founded and ratified.

I would agree with you, but the AMD website says the Global Headquarters is "One AMD Place" in Sunnyvale California. Also, your arguement that they are taking from an American company to benefit a European company is completely BUNK because not one cent of that money will be going to AMD. They ENTIRE fine is going directly into EU coffers.

Also, I just checked the AMD site and they have the site in 15 different languages. You would think that if their headquarters was in Germany that they would have a German language website, they dont. AMDs FAB36 is located in Dresden though.

Sorry messed up the thing with the fab in dresden (thought it's the head quarters) ... my mistake

Still Intel acted against European law in Europe so why shouldn't they pay for it?

"There is no such thing as a regulated free market. EU, you have to pick which you desire the most."

Imagine all regulation is lifted and we have 100% free market. Next month you get $500 electric bill instead of regular $100 even your usage didn't go up. You call your electric company and they told you that they raised tariffs. You have only to options: 1. pay the bill 2. stop using electricity.

They should get paid, but not to the EC or EU government. The action should be brought forth by AMD and the money should be distributed to AMD.

AMD was founded and their corporate head quarters are in America. They are an American company.

Yes it would be nice if Amd would get the money I agree, but most important is that Intel pays and wont do the same actions again so that Amd has a big long term benefit!

I don't see what's wrong with giving customers a rebate when buying your products bulk. It's not like Intel paid them not to use AMD chips, they just said "If you buy more from us, you get a bigger rebate." It's a valid way to reward customers for their loyalty to your company.

Seems to me like the EU is being a greedy and whiny little carebears.

Don't forget that AMD had aquired ATI, and ATI (was) licated in Canada. So at least 3 countries get involved.

How can they possibly enforce this?

Why would I boycott intel? Because they were stupid enough to get caught? Their still smart enough to have the best chips. And no I'm not a fanboi. My computer I'm building is gonna have intel in it most likely, but I have nothing against amd, and it's what i used for this computer. At the time amd was better for gaming it's not that way anymore.

All big corporations do crap like this.. Some get caught, some don't, and some simply don't care if they do, because even after the fines they still made more profit by doing such actions.

"Look at me i'm the EU i don't say jack shit but when my ecomedy plummits i sue every major company that is US owned and that has little world competition."

So what if they sell it cheaper with rebates to certian area's, They loose the otherwise profit they would have made in that area it's not like it's a no risk stragety.

So what they are going to BAN rebates in the EU because it's unfair to have a OTD price and a rebate price.

Typical Eurocrat scum - grab / steal what they can't create. Brussels Eurocrats are the worst kind of leeches. These jealous parasites HATE the fact that American companies are innovative market leaders more often than not. This is a mafia-style protection racket disguised as "anti-trust" action.

Hello Obama administration, get off your butts and do something about this - this is an assault on America.

i bet switching to linux will "cost" them a hell lot of monney brainiac and since i see you talk in the name of the american people .. well gosh america has some kind of idiots in that whole bunch, have you ever considered that most of the researchers in america are european scientist ? like the 2nd spoken language in Microsoft is Romanian ? and european country ? you have no clue about what are you talking about so better shut up.

The EU budget is fixed. If less is spent or revenue is higher, the EU simply takes up less of the money pledged by the member states. This money is taken up on a monthly basis from an account in each of the member states. If not used, it simply stays with the member state.
The yearly budget is a maximum, but often less is spent because projects proposed are not quite up to standard. Imagine your monthly taxes being a maximum and your national government usually taking less because they consider that their proposed spending is not 100% justified... who wouldn't like that?
Before having a go at the EU, try to get your facts straight. All this info is public anyways.

The EU budget is fixed. If less is spent or revenue is higher, the EU simply takes up less of the money pledged by the member states. This money is taken up on a monthly basis from an account in each of the member states. If not used, it simply stays with the member state.
The yearly budget is a maximum, but often less is spent because projects proposed are not quite up to standard. Imagine your monthly taxes being a maximum and your national government usually taking less because they consider that their proposed spending is not 100% justified... who wouldn't like that?
Before having a go at the EU, try to get your facts straight. All this info is public anyways.

Big talk from a bunch of ppl. Stupid EU and their trade laws. its why the nations over there are not as great as America. Oh well we will make more money and eventually AMD will take a dive and die on its own shitty business models. No I'm not an INTEL fanboy I have built numerous systems using both AMD and INTEL. I've also used Numerous ATI products and i couldn't care less about what brand name is being called out.

The day the prices in US are the same as in Europe using the real exchange rate, you might call us thieves. Until then, we're largely sponsoring your products which cost X dollars by us paying almost X euros for the same stuff. I don't think that shipping fees from Asia are THAT different.