Intel comes out swinging against $1.3bn European fine Intel is petitioning the EU's General Court to overthrow the massive fine imposed upon it by the European Commission back in 2009, saying that the case against it was fatally flawed from the get-go. "The quality of evidence relied on by the Commission is profoundly inadequate," Reuters reports Intel lawyer Nicholas Green …
...that criminals like Intel are not properly punished for their chronic violations of law. Treble damages should apply here based on Intel's annual revenues. In addition Paul Otellini and the entire first level of Intel management should all do five years prison time.
Intel, Microsucks and many other big fish have learned that it's extremely profitable to violate law, eliminate competition and gain market monoploies via crime.
What do you mean by "if they are guilty"?
Surely the Dennis the Menace response of: "we didn't do it, nobody saw us do it, you can't prove a thing" (and: "that fine is way too big for the crime that crime, even if we had done it, which you don't have enough evidence to prove") makes it all too clear that they have no respect for the court, which should be worth a small fine in its own right, or better still a night in jail to cool off before having to come back and apologise to the court.
The EU might get the cash injection it needs not to fall on its ass and die within the next year or so... Unless of course Intel manage to drag the court out another decade or so, in which case by the time they pay the fine the 1.34bn euros will probably only be worth a few hundered million USD
Whether or not Intel are truely guilty or not (though they appear to be), the fact that this has dragged on for so long is nuts.
Is 3 years really a reasonable amount of time to allow for a guilty party to appeal?
And for Intel to claim that "There has been absolutely zero harm to consumers" is rediculous. Trying to buy a non-white box PC with an AMD processor has always been infuriatingly difficult, and competition has suffered as a result.
We have already lost. When AMD filed the original complaints it really stood a chance in the market. Now it has been downsized and has lost critical assets (which by the way are based on european soil). And above all much of its competetiveness. Which I think it will never regain - if Intel could, AMD now would be history.
On the other hand, this is taking way too long. If Intel has been saving since the original case began (that means around 2000 or 2003) then this seemingly large fine would result in about or less than 100 million per year. For a company that makes around 50 billion per year, it is pocket change. On the other hand, the fine is loosing its value day by day and EU is spending a lot of money on these trials, investigations etc etc.
So in the end, the fine accomplishes nothing. (or at least much much less than what it is supposed to mean).
This is a sorry state of things.
Indeed, lets remember what AMD brought us:
1. First proper dual core design, Intel just slapped two CPUs in one package
2. 64-Bit x86 instruction set. Intel just copied it and made a few very minor changes.
Makes you wonder if Intel would have had us all running Itanium? I've no idea what their roadmap for 64-Bit would have been otherwise.
Intel eliminated any competition they had thru illegal means such as blackmail, intimidation, etc. and should be held accountable for the losses to AMD and consumers who were bilked out of hundreds of billions of dollars in over-charges for Intel products.
There is no reason why Intel should not be fined $500 Billion (that's with a "B") for the damages. Without this type of punishment for decades of crime, Intel and other corrupt companies will continue to violate law for really, really good profits while illegally establishing a market mmonopoly.
INVENTORS - DO NOT TRUST INTEL
I invented a CPU cooler - 3 times better than best - better than water. Intel have major CPU cooling problems - "Intel's microprocessors were generating so much heat that they were melting" (iht.com) - try to talk to them - they send my communications to my competitor & will not talk to me.
Winners of major 'Corporate Social Responsibility' awardS!!!
Huh!!!!
When did RICO get repealed?"
INVENTORS - DO NOT TRUST INTEL!!!
BTW, I have the evidence - my competitor gave it to me.
BBTW, I am prepared to apologise to Intel if;
• They can show that the actions were those of a single individual within the company, but acting outside corporate policy, and:
• They gain redress on my behalf.
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