This article is more than 1 year old

AMD files anti-trust suit against Intel

Bing-bong, bing-bong

AMD vs Intel AMD has filed an anti-trust complaint against Intel, accusing the firm of unlawfully maintaining its market position by making it difficult for people to do business with AMD. The suit was filed yesterday in a federal district court in Delaware, and lists 38 firms AMD says have been victims of coercion.

The complaint alleges that Intel has forced major customers, such as Dell, Sony, NEC and Hitachi, into exclusive, or partially exclusive deals with Intel in exchange for cash payments, rebates or marketing subsidies that were conditional on not doing business with AMD.

It alleges Intel paid NEC several million dollars to put caps on the amount of business it would do with AMD, and says that the chip-maker paid "huge sums" to Dell and Toshiba not to do business with AMD. The latter claim, it says, was confirmed by the Fair Trade Commission of Japan. The JFTC has recently ruled that Intel had abused its monopoly power in the region, in violation of Japan's Anti-monopoly Act.

Also listed in the complaint is anecdotal evidence, such as the statement of ex-Compaq boss, Michael Capellas back in 2000. At the time, he said Intel had withheld delivery of server chips because of the amount of business Compaq was doing with AMD. The complaint quotes Capellas as saying he had "a gun to his head" when he told AMD he had to stop buying its chips.

Thomas McCoy, AMD's legal affairs and chief administrative officer, wants to encourage global regulators look at Intel's business practices. "Intel maintains illegal monopoly profits at the expense of consumers and computer manufacturers, whose margins are razor thin. Now is the time for consumers and the industry worldwide to break free from the abusive Intel monopoly."

You can read the full text of the complaint here. ®

Related stories

Japan.gov bans Intel for two months
AMD cheers govt calls to end 'single-vendor' IT tenders
Intel offices raided in Japan on bad biz concerns

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like