The European Commission fined Intel 1.06 billion euros

The European Commission has fined 1,060 billion euros of the largest manufacturer of computer processors Intel for violating EU antitrust laws, said European Commissioner for Competition Neili Kroes on Wednesday.

The reason for the imposition of a fine was Intel's violation of anti-monopoly legislation in the course of competition with the concern AMD, the main competitor of the corporation, which in recent years occupied a significant share of the global microprocessor market, squeezing out Intel.

The investigation began in 2000, when the company Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) sent a complaint to the European Commission. The statement stated that Intel paid Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and NEC computer hardware manufacturers to stop using AMD microchips in Europe. Intel also provided companies that used its components of production, constant discounts, including the company Media Saturn Holding (the holder of the retail network MediaMarkt), which from 2002 to 2007 sold only computers based on Intel. Even employees of the largest AMD factory in Europe (Germany, Dresden) could not buy an AMD computer in the stores of their city.
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It is worth noting that this is a record fine in the field of antitrust law after Microsoft’s prosecution in 2004, which had to pay 497 million euros for abusing its leadership in the computer technology market.