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AMD Flies the European Flag After Intel Fine

by - source: Tom's Hardware US

AMD is flying the flag for Europe on its website this week.

Most of last week's news discussing Intel or AMD, mentioned, at least in passing, Intel’s record breaking fine from the EU and it seems AMD is determined to keep on people's radars the fact that Intel got burned.

While most seem to think the flag and the corresponding message that reads, “European Commission finds Intel guilty of breaking antitrust laws, harming consumers,” is AMD’s attempt to rub salt in the wound and do a little gloating, we’re inclined to think differently.

For years, the company complained that Intel was attempting to drive it out of the market and last week, those claims were recognized and confirmed by the European Commission. AMD posting the news on its site is what we’d expect from any company. We spoke to AMD's social media strategist, Chris James (via twitter because that's where a social media strategist hangs out these days) and he said he hopes that the flag isn't widely being perceived in a negative light.

"I hope it's not widely being perceived that way," James tweeted. "But it's an important decision after a 9 year fight. EU consumers rejoice!"

That said, there’s probably tons of you who think differently and we want to know if you think the picture above is childish, or if you think it’s a natural state of progression for a ruling like this: one team gets a smack on the wrist and the opposition does its best to spread the word.

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DXRick 05/18/2009 7:08 PM
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-15+

Well, if Intel broke EU laws, they should pay. But why does the EC get the money? Shouldn't AMD get it?

This is like class action suits in the US, where the lawyers run off with the money.

BallistaMan 05/18/2009 7:15 PM
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tenor77 05/18/2009 7:15 PM
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AMD was wronged, but I don't think shows much class. I've been running AMD chipsets on all my builds but Intel's taking their licks, I don't think trying to rub salt in the wound is the right approach.

LATTEH 05/18/2009 7:24 PM
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i think its funny

ravewulf 05/18/2009 7:25 PM
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I don't mind it (the flag on the website). A little amusing, sure, but not much more than that. It is nice to see the win for fair competition though

jacobdrj 05/18/2009 7:26 PM
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I just happened to go to the AMD website the day the verdict was in. I couldn't believe that they actually were gloating over this in this way while I was trying to download drivers.
I thought it was hilarious and sad at the same time.
They should spend more time and money advertising and less hoping for verdicts from governments.

JMcEntegart 05/18/2009 7:28 PM
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DXrick :
Well, if Intel broke EU laws, they should pay. But why does the EC get the money? Shouldn't AMD get it?This is like class action suits in the US, where the lawyers run off with the money.



The EU is representing the millions of European customers who were affected by Intel's actions. This is not really about Intel vs AMD, although that is a small part of it. The EU issued this fine because they felt Intel's actions harmed consumers.

The European Commission does not exist to fight on the behalf of AMD. If AMD feels Intel's actions were anticompetitive (which it clearly does) it needs to address that issue with its own lawsuit.

The money from Intel goes to the EU's central budget, which reduces the contributions that Member States pay to the EU. In other words, that money goes to the countries who were affected by Intel's actions.

Gin Fushicho 05/18/2009 7:31 PM
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Well it sure has made me laugh hard. AMD must really hate Intel. Regardless It is interesting to see the two companys turn into children with one having stolen from the cookie jar and the other tattling , then shoving it in his face. xD It's like saying "HAHA! Intel got grounded!"

Anonymous 05/18/2009 7:31 PM
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DXrick; It's like so many things that people get fined for. If your employer doesn't follow proper regulations and violates your rights, he gets fined and you get nothing. If AMD wants money, though, I don't see why they can't go after Intel with their own lawyers. I could be wrong, but the government decision should provide a legal precedent for Intel having been responsible for financial damages.

hunter315 05/18/2009 7:34 PM
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While im glad that intel got nailed and i do like AMD because it lets you get a good system without a ton of cash, the fact that it is in the middle of their homepage is kind of childish, they could have atleast been a bit more subtle about their gloating.

RicardoK 05/18/2009 7:35 PM
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Since forever I've seen this "driving out of business" talks from AMD and I think that if EU found Intel guilty you HAVE to let your customers know that you were right all along. Why not? They fought for it, they have the right to it.

bustapr 05/18/2009 7:36 PM
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+1^ The EU is representing the people of europe that got ripped off and robbed by intel. The money goes directly to the economy which is then for the people of europe.

bustapr 05/18/2009 7:37 PM
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rawsteel 05/18/2009 7:38 PM
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Hm, defending AMD will be poor sportsmanship!?! What sportsmanship is Intel showing? braking sportsman laws?

So if you cheat during sport is ok, but if you get cought from the judges and others aknowledge then they are not sportsmens ?!?

Wow, a lot of reason in this bullshit I smell.

Intel is wrong and was not playing by the rules. They must pay, and instead of defending them you must be happy because all this is in our favor the consumers.

erichlund 05/18/2009 7:45 PM
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Firmly in the "who cares" camp. I do find the "sportsmanship" comments amusing. It's not sport, it's business. Business is war without guns (well, except for arms dealers). The only reason there are rules has to do with the socialist nature of the governments (United States included, anti-trust laws are not pure capitalist, they are socialist). In a pure capitalist economy, the business goal "IS" monopoly. 100% market share is the best you can do, so why shoot for less. Well, because there are laws... :-)

ta152h 05/18/2009 7:50 PM
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tenor77 05/18/2009 7:51 PM
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erichlund :
Firmly in the "who cares" camp. I do find the "sportsmanship" comments amusing. It's not sport, it's business. Business is war without guns (well, except for arms dealers). The only reason there are rules has to do with the socialist nature of the governments (United States included, anti-trust laws are not pure capitalist, they are socialist). In a pure capitalist economy, the business goal "IS" monopoly. 100% market share is the best you can do, so why shoot for less. Well, because there are laws... :-)



Business is war but it's as much about PR as is it anything else. This is the equivilent to AMD teabagging Intel after a particularly bad beat down. As another poster said it's funny and sad all at the same time.

chripuck 05/18/2009 7:55 PM
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rawsteel :
Hm, defending AMD will be poor sportsmanship!?! What sportsmanship is Intel showing? braking sportsman laws?So if you cheat during sport is ok, but if you get cought from the judges and others aknowledge then they are not sportsmens ?!?Wow, a lot of reason in this bullshit I smell.Intel is wrong and was not playing by the rules. They must pay, and instead of defending them you must be happy because all this is in our favor the consumers.



Maybe a better word would be "lack of class." It doesn't matter if you're right, you don't rub your opponents nose in it. Bad karma man, and it'll bite them in the rear one day.

SAL-e 05/18/2009 8:12 PM
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scook9 05/18/2009 8:21 PM
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AMD didn't win anything, they are not getting paid anything. They are actually a completely seperate third party in this lawsuit. Intel earned this fine, and the bad publicity it has produced for them. Not to say that this will not help AMD, but it isn't selling their chips, just giving them a chance to sell them, the consumers will still decide who is more popular.

I am not a fanboy in anyway, never have been, and probably never will run AMD, Intel is just faster, even if a little more expensive.

thegh0st 05/18/2009 8:22 PM
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I don't get it. Why is it lack of class? I personally am an intel person but I don't see any problem with what AMD is doing. It is their choice and it's not like they are making it up. Plus there might actually be people who don't visit tom's or other tech sites but happen to venture to AMD's site for whatever reason and are unaware of the news. And just maybe they are trying to emphasize the character or lack there of this shows of Intel as a company and not themselves.

Sometimes you have to look outside your world. I think a lot of people are commenting based on this being overly common news. Which in the tech world it probably is but the tech world isn't the only one. I have yet to have seen this on the news in the morning when I wake up. Granted I might have missed it. But if I did then it definitely wasn't nearly as thorough as the news on the presidents dog and now the news on the toys they are making to resemble it (beanie baby type toys or something or other).

Also, is it no class or lack there of that Apple's commercials with the PC dude point out problems I am sure all of us here have experienced at least one of with Microsoft?

Anonymous 05/18/2009 8:32 PM
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jacobdrj 05/18/2009 8:36 PM
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mpomnis :
Anti-trust legislation is stupid. If Intel has created a near monopoly for itself by providing the vastly superior product for a few years, it deserves every bit of that market share.


Anti-trust legislation is not stupid. Certainly if a company is simply making a better product, and other companies fall off the map, that is fine. The problem comes when they are doing anti-competitive practices, such as taking a loss on your product to put another company out of business, exercising anti-competitive contracts with suppliers that does not reflect the actual profits of the product and so on.
I don't know if Intel has recently gone into these practices, but MS has been known to do this.

B-Unit 05/18/2009 8:36 PM
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Lets be honest here, the only people who are gonna see this are people headed to AMDs site to DL drivers. Keeping that in mind, who cares?

ravewulf 05/18/2009 8:37 PM
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kami3k :
They do, but through licenses. Both companies are using tech that is licensed from each other. Intel is using the 64bit tech from AMD, AMD is using the 32bit from Intel, etc.


That even seems to be breaking down lately. See previous articles on Intel vs AMD and Intel vs NVIDIA. Intel's being a bit of a pain these past few months

zerapio 05/18/2009 8:40 PM
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I'm honestly not surprised. This is coming from the same company that handed out "Multicore Processing for dummies" at IDF; only to come back and use the same approach in Magny-Cours.

Here's a flashback for those defending AMD because they "help consumers". It's funny how in the short time they had performance leadership they start charging over $1,000 for their best stuff (Athlon 64 X2 4800+ and FX 57).

Let's face it, business is business. Take the emotions out of it and buy whatever is the most convenient for you at the time of purchase.

millerm84 05/18/2009 8:42 PM
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I'm an Intel user but not a fanboi, so I found it funny as hell.

But every AMD enthusiast I've ever met told me I was an idiot for using Intel due to their "unethical" business practices (the only unethical thing a business can do in their own eyes is not make money business 101). And posting this article on their website kind of playing into that fan base.

Doesn't make any less humorous just a ploy to fire up the fans. I really don't see a reason to be disgusted or anything like that. If AMD had of put anything that wasn't "news" (like "haha PWNED!") on the website I could see that response, but simply reporting "market related news" with a related graphic isn't something to get your panties in a wad over.

puddleglum 05/18/2009 8:50 PM
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This is just one way for AMD to keep the pressure on. The game is far from over. Don't just expect Intel to roll over dead. They didn't get to where they are today by being stupid.

dman3k 05/18/2009 8:56 PM
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Some of you seem to forget that AMD had the performance + efficiency crown from 1999-2006, and the suit was first filed in 2000.

So why wasn't AMD given their fair share of the market? If they had, they might still be better. But quite simply, AMD ran out of money for R&D since the Core 2 Duo came out and Intel retook the lead in 2006.

glorfendel 05/18/2009 9:00 PM
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IzzyCraft 05/18/2009 9:01 PM
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