Intel handed €1bn fine

As many will now have seen, Intel has been handed a €1bn fine by those regulating EU competition.

The verdict, that Intel had abused its dominance and bullied its customers to hopefully rid the market of its rival, AMD.

On the vedict, Neelie Kroes, the European Competition Commissioner, said: "Intel has harmed millions of European customers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years. Such a serious and sustained violation of the EU's antitrust rules cannot be tolerated."

The verdict is more that €100,000 more than last years anti competition ruling against Microsoft. It is high but still falls short of the maximum penalty the authorities could have given. According to the British newspaper, the Telegraph: "Under European legislation Mrs Kroes could have fined Intel up to 10pc of its total annual revenue which, based on sales of $37.6bn (£24.5bn) last year, could have resulted in a maximum fine of almost $4bn."

The chief exec at Intel has naturally hit out at the verdict stating that it: "ignores the reality of a highly competitive microprocessor market place."

Several, however think this the decision is right if the fee somewhat high, Chris Green, an analyst at DMG Europe and the former editor of IT Pro, stating on his Twitter feed: "Finally digested all the details of the EU's verdict and fine imposed on Intel. In summary = decision was right, the figure was way too high"

Will it mean that Intel will be less aggressive with its marketing tactics, I doubt it, especially as the case is predicted to drag on for another two years. But it should be wary; Microsoft's €899,000 fine was because it failed to comply with a previous ruling, which had a trifling €497m fine originally attached.