That’s got to hurt
As we anticipated a couple of weeks ago, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has decided to join the growing list of regulatory bodies accusing chip giant Intel of anticompetitive tactics.
In an announcement entitled ‘FTC Challenges Intel's Dominance of Worldwide Microprocessor Markets,' the FTC revealed it has sued Intel, charging that it has "illegally used its dominant market position for a decade to stifle competition and strengthen its monopoly."
The strong, unambiguous wording of the FTC charge must be pretty close to a worst case scenario for Intel, which will have been hoping its settlement with AMD - its main CPU competitor - a month ago will have tempered the wrath of the FTC. Even Europe didn't extend its accusations to a full decade.
"Intel has engaged in a deliberate campaign to hamstring competitive threats to its monopoly," said Richard Feinstein, director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition. "It's been running roughshod over the principles of fair play and the laws protecting competition on the merits. The Commission's action today seeks to remedy the damage that Intel has done to competition, innovation, and, ultimately, the American consumer."
At first, the allegations seem pretty familiar: threats and rewards to major OEMs to persuade them to stick with Intel. But here's one that looks new: "Intel secretly redesigned key software, known as a compiler, in a way that deliberately stunted the performance of competitors' CPU chips."
The FTC is also alleging that Intel has more recently turned its attentions to GPUs - viewing them as an increasing threat to its CPU monopoly. "As part of this latest campaign, Intel misled and deceived potential competitors in order to protect its monopoly," said the FTC statement. "The complaint alleges that there also is a dangerous probability that Intel's unfair methods of competition could allow it to extend its monopoly into the GPU chip markets."
The hearing is not scheduled to happen until 15 September 2010.
