EU likely to fine Intel for anti-competitive behavior

[heruamon]

NJ5 said:

@heruamon: It would be called a tax if it was applied equally on all companies. As it stands, these companies can avoid getting fined if they follow the law, which Intel didn't if you believe that those damning emails were found as claimed.

Of course Intel isn't framing this as an anti-USA thing, because they would look ridiculous given all the evidence of European companies getting fined when they screw up as well. That plus the fact that Intel has been fined in Korea and Japan as well.

 

 

 And my point is this...what are the rules for rebates:

"

But he insisted that antitrust agencies in Europe, Japan and South Korea had not yet established a consensus about what forms of rebates were permissible.

“The law is in now flux,” Mr. Sewell said. Referring to the flurry of investigations into Intel’s business practices in recent years, he added “I think what you see here are agencies beginning to test the boundaries of the law.”

"

I can't speak for European consumers, but at NO TIME during the period in question, did I ever have a problem getting access to a AMD-based computer.  In fact, I had 2 desktops in my house during that period, and  one was a AMD PC I bought, and one that I built.  It was cheaper and delivered better results, so I bought those.  I'm ojust an individual, so that's all I can speak to, but if Intel (whose chips are more expensive than AMD's) wants to give rebates to big buy customers, to compensate them and make up the difference of price with AMD cheaper chips...how is that anti-competitive?  I guess I don't know the extent of the rebates, and the EU isn't making the details public, so it's hard to gauge the exact  point by point issue.  At this point, I don't understand the specifics of the rebates, so it looks like any other mass-market rebate that anybody gets in a volume buy, from my limited perspective