The Federal Trade Commission has issued a complaint against Intel charging the company that it has illegally used its dominant market position for a decade "to stifle competition and strengthen its monopoly".
The FTC alleges that Intel has "waged a systematic campaign to shut out rivals’ competing microchips by cutting off their access to the marketplace".
The FTC alleges that Intel carried out its anticompetitive campaign using threats and rewards aimed at computer manufacturers, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM, to coerce them not to buy rival computer CPU chips.
"Intel also used this practice, known as exclusive or restrictive dealing, to prevent computer makers from marketing any machines with non-Intel computer chips," said the FTC.
“Intel has engaged in a deliberate campaign to hamstring competitive threats to its monopoly,” said Richard A. Feinstein, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition.
“It’s been running roughshod over the principles of fair play and the laws protecting competition on the merits. The Commission’s action today seeks to remedy the damage that Intel has done to competition, innovation, and, ultimately, the American consumer,” said Feinstein.
The FTC complaint also alleges that Intel redesigned the software compiler in a way that "deliberately stunted the performance of competitors’ CPU chips".
According to the FTC, Intel failed to disclose that performance differences were due largely to the compiler design.