Intel Gets Slammed in Brussels
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Justice was severe, if not exactly swift. After an investigation that dragged on nearly nine years, on May 13 the powerful Competition Directorate of the European Commission slapped California-based semiconductor giant Intel (INTC) with the largest fine ever levied in an EU antitrust case and placed significant, but as yet vague, restrictions on Intel's future use of rebates and other sales incentives to spur sales of its market-leading microprocessors in Europe.
The Commission's €1.06 billion ($1.45 billion) fine amounts to 3.8% of Intel's $37.6 billion in 2008 revenues (it could have been as high as 10%) and about 2.4% of Intel's estimated x86 PC processor sales in Europe during the period covered by the case, from 2002 to 2007.