EC charges Intel $1.44 billion, the largest ever antitrust penalty

On Wednesday the European Commission fined Intel $1.44 billion, that appeared to become the largest antitrust penalty the Commission has ever levied against any single company. That happened as EC found the company guilty of breaking antitrust law in PC microprocessors market.

The EC is to monitor Intel's compliance with the ruling, and, as the officials in the antitrust group stated, the Commission wants to do the job by itself. Intel intends to appeal the ruling and takes "strong exception" to the Commission's decision, as Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini claims the decision is "wrong and ignores the reality of a highly competitive microprocessor market."

As it was reported earlier company was blamed for paying computer producers to cancel or delay Intel’s main competitor AMD chips machines implementation, and for selling its chips for server computers at lower prices to large customers.