EU likely to fine Intel for anti-competitive behavior

[NJ5]

heruamon said:

nojustno said:
Wow that must burn a hole in their finances

This is going to be a fight at the WTO...because this smacks of a set of countries shaking down some foreign companies.

How can this be such a big deal if California with its 35 million population has fined Microsoft for $1.1 billion, nearly the same amount? It's like a fifth of Intel's annual profit.

More to the point, I don't understand what "shaking down some foreign companies" could possibly accomplish here, other than the openly stated objective of making the "free market" be a reality unaffected by Intel's monopolisation attempts.

It's not like AMD is a European company. There isn't even a single significant European company competing in this market.