FTC Opens Antitrust Enquiry Against Intel
FTC started a formal investigation today to find out whether Intel, world’s largest chip maker has used its dominance to suppress its competitors.
FTC will be able to get access to documents with this probe, disclosing Intel’s communications with certain customers — documents Intel couldn’t voluntarily provide because of a protective order that is part of a sweeping antitrust lawsuit AMD filed in 2005 that isn’t expected to go to trial until 2010.
“It’s illegal for a monopoly to keep its customers from doing business with its competitors, and that’s what the issue here is,” Tom McCoy, Advanced Micro Devices executive vice president and chief administrative officer, said in an interview.
AMD claims the rebates and financial incentives Intel offers to those companies for buying more Intel chips are designed to prevent AMD from gaining market share — and that Intel threatens those manufacturers that it will retaliate if they introduce models based on AMD’s chips.
The FTC has been reviewing Intel’s business practices off and on for years, and the move to open a formal investigation follows a political shift in the commission’s leadership. Deborah Platt Majoras stepped down as FTC chairman in March and was replaced by William E. Kovacic, who has served in several capacities in his long career at the FTC.
Source: AP
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