Intel Anti-competitive allegations by regulatory bodies

Japan

In 2005, the local Fair Trade Commission found that Intel violated the Japanese Antimonopoly Act. The commission ordered Intel to eliminate discounts that had discriminated against AMD. To avoid a trial, Intel agreed to comply with the order

European Union

In July 2007, the European Commission accused Intel of anti-competitive practices, mostly against AMD.[88] The allegations, going back to 2003, include giving preferential prices to computer makers buying most or all of their chips from Intel, paying computer makers to delay or cancel the launch of products using AMD chips, and providing chips at below standard cost to governments and educational institutions.[89] Intel responded that the allegations were unfounded and instead qualified its market behavior as consumer-friendly.[90] General counsel Bruce Sewell responded that the Commission had misunderstood some factual assumptions as to pricing and manufacturing costs.[91]

In February 2008, Intel stated that its office in Munich had been raided by European Union regulators. Intel reported that it was cooperating with investigators.[92] Intel faced a fine of up to 10% of its annual revenue, if found guilty of stifling competition.[90] AMD subsequently launched a website promoting these allegations.[93][94] In June 2008, the EU filed new charges against Intel.[95] In May 2009, the EU found that Intel had engaged in anti-competitive practices and subsequently fined Intel €1.06 billion ($1.44 billion), a record amount. Intel was found to have paid companies, including Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and NEC,[96] to exclusively use Intel chips in their products, and therefore harmed other companies including AMD.[96][97][98] The European Commission said that Intel had deliberately acted to keep competitors out of the computer chip market and in doing so had made a "serious and sustained violation of the EU's antitrust rules".[96] In addition to the fine, Intel was ordered by the Commission to immediately cease all illegal practices.[96] Intel has stated that they will appeal against the Commission's verdict

South Korea

In September 2007, South Korean regulators accused Intel of breaking antitrust law. The investigation began in February 2006, when officials raided Intel's South Korean offices. The company risked a penalty of up to 3% of its annual sales, if found guilty.[99] In June 2008, the Fair Trade Commission ordered Intel to pay a fine of $25.5 million for taking advantage of its dominant position to offer incentives to major Korean PC manufacturers on the condition of not buying products from AMD

United States

New York started an investigation of Intel in January 2008 on whether the company violated antitrust laws in pricing and sales of its microprocessors.[101] In June 2008, the Federal Trade Commission also began an antitrust investigation of the case.[102] In December 2009 the FTC announced it would initiate an administrative proceeding against Intel in September 2010.[103][104][105][106]

In November 2009, following a two year investigation, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo sued Intel, accusing them of bribery and coercion, claiming that Intel bribed computer makers to buy more of their chips than those of their rivals, and threatened to withdraw these payments if the computer makers were perceived as working too closely with its competitors. Intel has denied these claims.

Intel Lawsuits

Intel has often been accused by competitors of using legal claims to thwart competition. Intel claims that it is defending its intellectual property. Intel has been plaintiff and defendant in numerous legal actions.

In September 2005, Intel filed a response to an AMD lawsuit,[74] disputing AMD's claims, and claiming that Intel's business practices are fair and lawful. In a rebuttal, Intel deconstructed AMD's offensive strategy and argued that AMD struggled largely as a result of its own bad business decisions, including underinvestment in essential manufacturing capacity and excessive reliance on contracting out chip foundries.[75] Legal analysts predict the lawsuit will most drag for a number of years, since Intel's response indicates that Intel is not likely to settle the dispute with AMD.[76][77] A court date has been granted in 2010.[78]

In October 2006, a Transmeta lawsuit was filed against Intel for patent infringement on computer architecture and power efficiency technologies.[79] The lawsuit was settled in October 2007, with Intel agreeing to pay USD 150 million initially and USD 20 million per year for the next five years. Both companies agreed to drop lawsuits against each other, while Intel was granted a perpetual non-exclusive license to use current and future patented Transmeta technologies in its chips for 10 years.[80]

On November 4, 2009, New York's attorney general filed an antitrust lawsuit against Intel Corp, claiming the company used "illegal threats and collusion" to dominate the market for computer microprocessors.

On November 12, 2009, Intel and AMD announced a truce for 5 years by Intel paying AMD $1.25 billion in exchange for it to drop the antitrust suit AMD brought against Intel five years ago[81]. In a joint statement, the two chip makers said this, "While the relationship between the two companies has been difficult in the past, this agreement ends the legal disputes and enables the companies to focus all of our efforts on product innovation and development."

Intel Competition

In the 1980s, Intel was among the top ten sellers of semiconductors (10th in 1987) in the world. In 1991, Intel became the biggest chip maker by revenue and has held the position ever since. Other top semiconductor companies include AMD, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Toshiba and STMicroelectronics.

Competitors in PC chip sets include VIA Technologies, SiS, and Nvidia. Intel's competitors in networking include Freescale, Infineon, Broadcom, Marvell Technology Group and AMCC, and competitors in flash memory include Spansion, Samsung, Qimonda, Toshiba, STMicroelectronics, and Hynix.

The only major competitor in the x86 processor market is Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), with which Intel has had full cross-licensing agreements since 1976: each partner can use the other's patented technological innovations without charge after a certain time.[72] However, the cross-licensing agreement is canceled in the event of an AMD bankruptcy or takeover.[73] Some smaller competitors such as VIA and Transmeta produce low-power x86 processors for small factor computers and portable equipment.

Intel Age discrimination

Intel has faced complaints of age discrimination in firing and layoffs. Intel was sued by nine former employees, over allegations that they were laid off because they were over the age of 40.[68]

A group called FACE Intel (Former and Current Employees of Intel) claims that Intel weeds out older employees. FACE Intel claims that more than 90 percent of people who have been terminated by Intel are over the age of 40. Upside magazine requested data from Intel breaking out its hiring and terminations by age, but the company declined to provide any.[69] Intel has denied that age plays any role in Intel's employment practices.[70] FACE Intel was founded by Ken Hamidi, who was terminated by Intel in 1995 at the age of 47.[69] Hamidi was blocked in a 1999 court decision from using Intel's email system to distribute criticism of the company to employees

Intel Religious controversy

Ultra-orthodox Jews have protested Intel operating in Israel on Saturday, the Sabbath. Intel was forced to ring its office in barbed wire for protection against possible violent religious extremists.[67] Intel's decision to make so many motherboard socket designs and establish their accounting office in Israel has since lowered tension to this crisis. Intel offered lower interest rates and larger stock options to employees working within Israel. As of December 2009, the situation has been stable for Intel Israel while some employees have been reported working over-time on the Sabbath

Intel Environmental record

In 2003, there were 1.4 tons of carbon tetrachloride measured from one of Intel's many acid scrubbers. However, Intel reported no release of carbon tetrachloride for all of 2003.[64] Intel's facility in Rio Rancho, New Mexico overlooks a nearby village, and the hilly contours of its location create a setting for chemical gases heavier than air to move along arroyos and irrigation ditches in that village. Release of chemicals in such an environment reportedly caused adverse effects in both animals and humans. Deceased dogs in the area were found to have high levels of toluene, hexane, ethylbenzene, and xylene isomers in lungs.[65] More than 1580 pounds of VOC were released in June and July 2006, the company stated.

Intel Open source support

Intel has a significant participation in the open source communities. For example, in 2006 Intel released MIT-licensed X.org drivers for their integrated graphic cards of the i965 family of chipsets. Intel released FreeBSD drivers for some networking cards,[59] available under a BSD-compatible license, which were also ported to OpenBSD. Intel ran the Moblin project until April 23, 2009, when they handed the project over to the Linux Foundation. Intel also runs the LessWatts.org campaigns.[60]

However, after the release of the wireless products called Intel Pro/Wireless 2100, 2200BG/2225BG/2915ABG and 3945ABG in 2005, Intel was criticized for not granting free redistribution rights for the firmwares that are necessary to be included in the operating systems for the wireless devices to operate.[61] As a result of this, Intel became a target of campaigns to allow free operating systems to include binary firmware on terms acceptable to the open source community. Linspire-Linux creator Michael Robertson outlined the difficult position that Intel was in releasing to open source, as Intel did not want to upset their large customer Microsoft.[62] Theo de Raadt of OpenBSD also claimed that Intel is being "an Open Source fraud" after an Intel employee presented a distorted view of the situation on an open-source conference.[63] In spite of the significant negative attention Intel received as a result of the wireless dealings, the binary firmware still has not gained a license compatible with free software principles.