EU issues antitrust charges against Intel

The European Commission raided Intel’s offices in 2005 on suspicions of anticompetitive activities. In 1999, Intel settled charges with the US Federal Trade Commission, and a later investigation by the FTC in 2000 was dropped. In 2004, the Fair Trade Commission in Japan raided Intel’s Japanese office, and in 2006 the Korean Fair Trade Commission raided Intel’s office in Seoul. Both raids were conducted as part of antitrust investigations in their respective countries.

In the United States, AMD sued Intel in June 2005 on charges of coercion and anti-competitive practices, running full-page ads in several US newspapers. “You may not be aware, but Intel’s illegal actions hurt consumers – everyday,” read the ad, pointing to a 48-page complaint (PDF) on AMD’s web site. Today the lawsuit is still working its way through the courts, with additional lawsuits pending in South America and other jurisdictions.

AMD enjoyed a surge in market share in 2005 and 2006 with its’ Opteron and Athlon 64 line of CPUs. However, with the launch of Intel’s heralded Core 2 line of CPUs in July 2006, AMD found itself losing much of the traction they had previously gained. At the end of 2006, AMD’s market share was 25% of all shipments for x86 processors, but by March 2007, that number slipped to less than 19%.