Intel in antitrust lawsuit
Intel chip
Published: Nov 05, 2009
Global - Intel has been charged with paying computer companies billions of dollars to use Intel microprocessors rather than those from rival AMD.
New York attorney-general Andrew Cuomo charged the company with using "illegal threats and collusion" to dominate the market for computer microprocessors.
Cuomo said Intel had engaged in a "systematic worldwide campaign of illegal, exclusionary conduct to maintain its monopoly power" in the market for computer chips that began in 2001, media reports said.
The suit also accuses Intel of threatening computer makers if they worked too closely with the chipmaker's competitors. These threats included cutting off payments the computer makers were receiving from Intel, directly funding a computer maker's competitors and ending joint development ventures.
An Intel spokesperson denied the charges and said it would fight the lawsuit.
The charge follows a similar claim made by the European Commission that resulted in a record US$1.45 billion fine for Intel earlier this year.
The suit, which was filed in federal court, seeks to bar further anticompetitive acts by Intel, restore lost competition, recover monetary damages suffered by New York governmental entities and consumers, and collect penalties.
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