Experts: Intel Could Face More Troubles in the EU
Reports this week say Intel could face more charges in Europe following last week’s fine from the European Commission.
Since news of the fine the European Commission imposed on Intel hit last week, there has been a lot of confusion. Who’s getting the money? How come AMD isn’t getting a thing? To clear things up, while AMD was a victim of Intel’s actions, the European Union was not acting on behalf of AMD and so, the company gets nothing. However, experts say the result of the EU/Intel decision could result in a barrage of other European lawsuits for Intel.
PC World cites Alan Davis, an expert in competition law at Pinsent Masons, as saying Intel could face even more payouts if Intel competitors, such as AMD, take civil cases on the back of the Commission's ruling.
"This will open the floodgates for competitors to sue," said Davis. "There was a complainant in this case, AMD and without question they and other competitors will pursue a case for damages."
Davis went on to explain that, while AMD was a complainant, competitors who suffered damage to their businesses because of Intel's anti-competitive practices will not see a cent of the money Intel has to hand over to the European Commission. According to Davis, “what is likely to happen is that action will be started and a massive settlement will be made.”
For those of you interested, the $1.45 billion from Intel will go to the EU’s central budget, and will, according to the commission, reduce 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.
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Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.
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sandmanwn First you pillage then you loot. You thought we actually made it to the looting didn't you?Reply -
afrobacon Its not like they can't afford it...Reply
As long as this eventually results in lower prices for the consumer, or at the very least more competition I don't see anything but good coming from this. -
IzzyCraft No lol it means higher prices for the consumer... intel anti competitive deals were more or less giving away processors to certain oem's as long as they don't deal with amd. So the manufactures were able to keep cost lower :) also don't think 1.4 billion is tiny to the 37.6 billion U.S. dollars net revenue,their net income or profits was only 5.3 billion or 32% of profits total of the year 2008. Take to consideration the EU is only about 19% of intel's market.Reply
If i have this wrong go ahead prove me other wise. All in all it means higher prices, although the enthusiast market would probably never notice but you might notice a small price changes at oems like dell, acer etc. -
caqde Yes, Izzy you got it right in the short term, but the damages caused by this action would in the future (NOW) cause you to pay higher prices for elite technologies from that company. Intel has no competition from AMD anymore because AMD can't foot the bill to keep up with Intel. Because AMD wasn't able to get the sales they would have they don't have that extra money from those sales that they could have used to build more Fabs and/or product development teams like Intel is able to do.Reply -
deltatux IzzyCraftNo lol it means higher prices for the consumer... intel anti competitive deals were more or less giving away processors to certain oem's as long as they dont deal with amd. So the manufactures were able to keep cost lower also don't think 1.4 billion is tiny 37.6 billion U.S. dollars, net income of 5.3 billion or 32% of profits total of the year 2008. Take to consideration the EU is onyl about 19% of intel's market.If i got dis wrong go ahead prove me other wise all in all it means higher prices although the enthusiast market would probably never notice but you might notice a small price changes at oems like dell, acer etc.Reply
It doesn't lower CPU prices. Intel will still sell you their Core 2 Quad processors for $200+. The only thing that is keeping those processors low in price is the competition from AMD. The only reasson why Intel has ever prices is pressure from AMD. Without that pressure, Intel will never drop their prices.
Even if manufacturing costs are down, Intel will still force higher prices on us if it wants to. They can even give away the processors to the large OEMs and charge us what they want if they had their way. Competition is the only reason why our prices are low. -
jsloan happy, happy, joy, joyReply
stick it to them, ha, ha, ha, ha!
eu = pinko commies, facist socialist pigs -
caqde I guess what I meant to say is it really wouldn't matter you would either pay higher prices because AMD is gone/useless or higher prices in the short term while AMD starts to get off their feet again due to Intel's actions.Reply -
IzzyCraft deltatuxIt doesn't lower CPU prices. Intel will still sell you their Core 2 Quad processors for $200+. The only thing that is keeping those processors low in price is the competition from AMD. The only reasson why Intel has ever prices is pressure from AMD. Without that pressure, Intel will never drop their prices.Even if manufacturing costs are down, Intel will still force higher prices on us if it wants to. They can even give away the processors to the large OEMs and charge us what they want if they had their way. Competition is the only reason why our prices are low.That's the basis for a free market econ... pretty sure most people knew that it prays off that man is nothing more then evil and will do anything to benefit himself 1st but such energies can be channeled into being productive such is the ideals that structured the us Constitution.Reply
I mean why else would IBM contract AMD to make Intel cpus to sell to them if not to invoke competition. -
curnel_D And guess who really looses? Us.Reply
Seriously, all this crap is going to start is mass layoffs from intel (likely most of their EU staff), as well as less greenbacks spent on RnD.
Sweet; Higher unemployment and lower techological advancement!
Thanks EU commission!