back to article Intel to appeal EU fine

Intel said it will appeal the record €1.06bn ($1.5bn) fine imposed on it by the European Competition Commission. In a strongly worded statement, Intel's chief executive Paul Otellini said: “Intel takes strong exception to this decision. We believe the decision is wrong and ignores the reality of a highly competitive …

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  1. JRallo
    Pirate

    European stimulus package.

    Guess Intel is part of the EU's stimulus package. Toss in Microsoft and Europe will dig them selves right out of this recession!

    Pirates, 'cause they sail the high seas stealing from the rich and giving to themselves... yarrrr.

  2. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

    Pull the other one Otellini

    Paul Otellini: "There has been absolutely zero harm to consumers."

    This message was typed on an Intel laptop. I wanted AMD, but there were no AMD decent laptops for sale in the same price range. Bear in mind that AMD were unable to give CPU's away for free because distributors would have lost their "Intel only" rebates. If I underclock my AMD desktops so they use less power than a laptop, I get a silent computer with better performance than my noisy Intel laptop.

    If Mr Otellini cannot spot the harm that his company does to consumers, then by all means use his appeal as an excuse to double the fine.

    (I found answers to my biggest questions about these fines: Intel have three months to pay the current fine - even if they appeal. If they appeal, the money is held in trust and earns interest. If Intel lose the appeal, the money goes into the same kitty that national governments pay into for EU membership. Decide for yourself if that means you get lower taxes or a bigger EU budget.)

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    awww bless ...

    "ignores the reality of a highly competitive microprocessor marketplace... There has been absolutely zero harm to consumers"

    monopolies and the activities that lead to them do not harm the consumer?

    discuss

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Prepositions Akimbo

    Surely: "Intel to appeal against EU fine"?

    We're not in Kansas, you know ...

  5. Lee Sexton

    Here we go again

    Every single large company does this, the UK is full of it, I work in Engineering, backhanders galore folks. This country and most others are built on backhanders, just the way it is.

    With this though, lets say for arguments sake Intel across the 9 years of this behaviour (are we really thinking it's only been going on 9 years? :p) made sale of £1.5billion per year, £500m of that was profit, times that by 9 years = £4.5b profit with a fine of £1b. This equals huge market share, almost wiping the competition out and disabling it so much that it no longer can compete anyway, very little damage to the Intel brand being named and shamed and still making big profits. Seems worth it to me, I'd be doing the same win win for Intel regardless of the fine. When the EU and other govts start taking anti-competitive laws seriously and dishing out the fines to justify even wasting time on these matters then I'll be interested. The fine should have been the operating profit for the whole of the time it was found guilty of these practises.

    Another bark without bite. Of course we all know that politicians have a vested interest, I'm sure some are large shareholders in Intel and probably sitting somewhere on the board at some level.

    Oh well, time to get back to my own brand of backhanders, not quite on the same scale but hey this is what business is all about unfortunately. Anyone want a case of JD? You'll have to buy stuff from me though :p

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  7. Tam Lin

    Justice on the US schedule is justice bought off

    Digital Research, AT&T (original, computer division), SCO (Xenix), Caldera (pre-McBride), Netscape, 3COM (Palm), Borland, Stac, Java. Just some of the bankrupted companies who won lawsuits against the antiethical, antisocial Microsoft.

    All except Java are essentially killed, dead and buried; Java is now safely off grazing where it can't do any cross-platform damage while its owner is joining the rest of the group six feet under.

    Microsoft has all of these companies' market share, IP or stuff (e.g., money, code, people), as applicable, and stole it in most cases for fractions of pennies on the dollar.

    (I'm not even mentoning Microsoft's monopoly conviction. The "Justice Department" used it to increase its own headcount and ability to award contracts to friends and family. I presume their "enforcement" was limited to junkets to vacation spots for meetings - the US did less in 8 years then the EU does in an afternoon. After tea.)

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