It’s going to be a long, cold winter for Intel legal.
In its complaint (full text below), the FTC claims Intel used threats and bundled prices or other offers to encourage exclusive deals, hamper competition or unfairly manipulate the chip market.
The agency also alleges that Intel secretly redesigned certain compiler software in a way that deliberately stunted the performance of competitors’ chips. Intel then claimed the software performed better on its chips than on those of competitors, neglecting to disclose that performance differences were due largely to its compiler design.
Significantly, the FTC complaint also takes issue with Intel’s behavior in graphics, accusing the chip maker of attempting to extend its monopoly to graphics processing units, which have become an increasingly important part of the PC industry.
The FTC charges that Intel has responded to this competitive challenge by embarking on a similar anticompetitive strategy, which aims to preserve its CPU monopoly by smothering potential competition from GPU chips such as those made by Nvidia. As part of this latest campaign, Intel misled and deceived potential competitors in order to protect its monopoly, the complaint alleges, adding that there is a dangerous probability that Intel’s unfair methods of competition could allow it to extend its monopoly into the GPU chip markets.
The FTC is seeking an order that would prevent Intel from using threats, bundled prices and similar tactics to encourage exclusive deals and hamper competition. The Commission’s action against Intel comes about a month after the chip maker settled its long-running antitrust dispute with rival AMD (AMD) for $1.25 billion.
“The FTC’s rush to file this case will cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars to litigate issues that the FTC has not fully investigated. It is the normal practice of antitrust enforcement agencies to investigate the facts before filing suit. The Commission did not do that in this case,” said Melamed.