Intel Settles Anti-Competitive Behaviour Claim

The Federal Trade Commission and Intel announced on Wednesday that they have agreed to settle charges of anticompetitive behavior that the agency claimed stifled competition in the market.

The settlement would prohibit Intel from paying any of its customers to buy Intel processor chips or to prevent them from buying the chips of its competitors. It would also prohibit Intel from designing its chips in way that they harm a competitor. Intel also agreed that no retaliation would be done if a customer agrees to buy chips from a competitor.

In addition, the settlement requires Intel to modify agreements with other chipmakers giving them the freedom to merge or form joint ventures without the threat of being sued by Intel for patent infringement. Intel is also required to maintain for at least six years a feature that will not limit the performance of graphics processing chips made by others, and to disclose that its computer compilers might discriminate between its chips and those of other companies, and therefore not might register all of the features of non-Intel chips.

Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of the F.T.C., said that the settlement “provides ‘fencing-in’ protection to ensure that Intel doesn’t come up with new ways to undermine competition.”

In a statement, Intel’s general counsel, A. Douglas Melamed, said the settlement allowed the company “to put an end to the expense and distraction of the F.T.C. litigation.”