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Intel, Antitrust, and the EU Commission: AMD Told the Truth

By Pamela Jones et al.

This isn't a good time for monopolies to bully the market. I wonder how Microsoft is feeling today, now that Intel has been told to stop its anticompetitive rebates programs? From the EU Commission's press release:

Intel awarded major computer manufacturers rebates on condition that they purchased all or almost all of their supplies, at least in certain defined segments, from Intel...

Certain rebates can lead to lower prices for consumers. However, where a company is in a dominant position on a market, rebates that are conditional on buying less of a rival's products, or not buying them at all, are abusive according to settled case-law of the Community Courts unless the dominant company can put forward specific reasons to justify their application in the individual case....

As a result of Intel's rebates, the ability of rival manufacturers to compete and innovate was impaired, and this led to reduced choice for consumers....Intel also interfered directly in the relations between computer manufacturers and AMD. Intel awarded computer manufacturers payments - unrelated to any particular purchases from Intel - on condition that these computer manufacturers postponed or cancelled the launch of specific AMD-based products and/or put restrictions on the distribution of specific AMD-based products.

The $1.4B fine is record-breaking, so Microsoft no longer holds that dubious crown. You know what this means? It means AMD told us the truth since at least the year 2000, when it first filed a complaint with the Commission, according to this ruling. I invite you to look back at the media coverage of AMD's complaints, and ask yourself: how well did most of the mainstream media cover what was happening to AMD? Of course, Intel can appeal, and it says it will.

It's so significant a turn of events, I will place the press release on Groklaw, as part of our permanent record of this part of antitrust history. And should you ever, ever, hear of anything like this happening again in Europe, you know who to tell. The EU Commission even has a form you can fill out, should that day ever come.

Full post as published by Groklaw on May 13, 2009 (boomark / email).