The Federal Trade Commission today sued Intel Corp., the world’s leading computer chip maker, charging that the company has illegally used its dominant market position for a decade to stifle competition and strengthen its monopoly.
In its complaint, the FTC alleges that Intel has waged a systematic campaign to shut out rivals’ competing microchips by cutting off their access to the marketplace. In the process, Intel deprived consumers of choice and innovation in the microchips that comprise the computers’ CPU.
According to the FTC complaint, Intel’s anticompetitive tactics were designed to put the brakes on superior competitive products that threatened its monopoly in the CPU microchip market. Over the last decade, this strategy has succeeded in maintaining the Intel monopoly at the expense of consumers, who have been denied access to potentially superior, non-Intel CPU chips and lower prices, the complaint states.
The NY Times notes that the F.T.C. action comes after a year long investigation and follows recent antitrust complaints against Intel by European regulators and the New York attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo.
But the F.T.C. move also comes a month after Intel reached a $1.25 billion settlement with its longtime rival in the chip market, Advanced Micro Devices. That settlement, covering both private antitrust and patent claims, was seen as possibly deterring the F.T.C. from moving ahead.
The F.T.C. complaint accuses Intel of taking a series of steps to hinder competition in the market for graphics processing chips, made by companies including Nvidia, AMD and Via.
In a statement, Nvidia said that it was “particularly pleased to see scrutiny being placed on Intel’s behavior” toward the graphics chips.
