EU likely to fine Intel for anti-competitive behavior

[crumas2]

NJ5 said:

@crumas2: The EU is supposed to regulate the European market. So when a company engages in anti-competitive behavior with European companies (remember that retailers and other computer companies are involved in this), the law says an investigation must happen.

It also happens that this behavior from Intel hurts European consumers, by denying them access to the competing products from AMD. Not only that but it also means Intel could keep their products at a higher price by eliminating the competition from the European market.

So tell me again, why should the EU ignore what Intel did here?

 

It's really none of the EU's business if one American company is demonstrating anti-competitive behavior against another American company.  They have an *interest* (it could ultimately lead to a monopoly and higher prices), but not a mandate, except in their own minds.  How would the EU respond if the US government fined BMW because it was being anti-competitive against Saab?  Our government tends to fine foreign companies that are improperly competing with American companies, but I'm unaware of scenarios where we levy gigantic fines against foreign companies for unfairly competing with each other.

When fines of that magnitude are levied, it's usually to restore a local competitor or to compensate consumers.  In this case, it's simply a tax considering EU customers most likely would NOT have paid significantly less for those processors had the behavior not existed.