Report: US regulators to file complaint against Intel

23.10.2009
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is moving toward opening a formal complaint against Intel, according to a news report published on Friday.

Three out of four antitrust regulators at the FTC are in favor of filing a complaint, according to a citing undisclosed sources.

The report comes in the wake of the European Commission fining Intel €1.06 billion (equivalent to US$1.44 billion at the time) in May, after finding it guilty of antitrust violations in the PC processor market. The EC said Intel had paid rebates to system manufacturers in order to shut out competition from rivals such as Advanced Micro Devices.

Intel said the company was cooperating with the FTC on an ongoing inquiry into competition in the microprocessor market but that it isn't aware of any new developments.

"We've been cooperating with the formal investigation and we're continuing to do so. We have no knowledge in terms of a decision," said Chuck Mulloy, an Intel spokesman. "We're assuming the investigation is ongoing."

The FTC's investigation into Intel started in 2008, just a day after the Korea Fair Trade Commission fined Intel around $25 million for abusing its dominant position in the PC processor market. Intel offered rebates to South Korean PC makers in a way that unfairly harmed AMD, the Korea Fair Trade Commission found.