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Intel fined $3 million by India’s antitrust regulator over discriminatory CPU warranty policy — says Intel abused its dominant position in the boxed processor market.
Intel has been fined a sum of INR 27.38 crores (approximately $3.02 million) by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the boxed microprocessors (BMP) market. According to an order issued under Section 27, India’s antitrust regulator found that Intel India violated Section 4 of the Competition Act of 2002 by implementing unfair warranty policies in the country.
As per a complaint filed by Matrix Info Systems Private Limited, Intel made changes to its warranty policies in India starting April 25, 2016, under which the chip-maker honored warranty support in India only for boxed processors bought from Intel-authorized distributors within the country. Due to this change, Intel denied warranty benefits to customers who purchased their processors from authorized sellers in other countries and were asked to claim the warranty in the country where the product was originally purchased.
Following the evidence and investigation, the CCI concluded that Intel holds a dominant position in the market for boxed desktop processors within India. It also called Intel’s India-specific warranty policy ‘discriminatory’ when compared to its warranty practices in other countries worldwide including China and Australia. The Commission also highlighted that the change in policy limited the choice of consumers and parallel importers, ultimately harming Indian consumers.
Since the India-specific warranty policy was in place for eight years, the Commission imposed the fine based on 8% of Intel’s average relevant turnover during that period. However, the penalty amount was reduced considering mitigating factors, including the discontinuation of the aforesaid policy starting April 1, 2024. The CCI has also instructed Intel to publicly announce that it has withdrawn the India-specific warranty policy and to submit a report confirming its compliance.
The CCI’s ruling notably draws a parallel to antitrust actions against Intel worldwide. In December 2025, Intel failed to overturn a European Union antitrust ruling related to its competition with AMD. The long-running 16-year case originated from earlier findings that alleged Intel of engaging in anti-competitive practices to disadvantage AMD in the CPU market. While an original fine amounting to €1.06 billion (around $1.25 billion) was annulled in previous court rulings, the European Commission re-imposed a penalty in 2023 tied to certain restrictions on PC makers.
Kunal Khullar is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. He is a long time technology journalist and reviewer specializing in PC components and peripherals, and welcomes any and every question around building a PC.
Seems like a normal policy not unique to Intel and a smart policy with how much fraud exist in this world. Warranty support only in the country you bought the goods from established partner in full retail configuration only. For tray/ large volume OEM parts there is no expressed warranty. With how little the fine is perhaps cheaper for Intel to just pay.
