Intel’s Business Practices Questioned

Santa Clara, California-headquartered Intel Corporation is under fire for allegedly unethical and unfair business practices from quite a few quarters.

Witness for example the ruling given by European Commission a few days ago. The EC has found that Intel has been giving discounts and rebates to computer manufacturers in a deal that incentivizes the latter to buy Intel and Intel-only products, to the exclusion of the competition. The company specifically made payments to Media Saturn a major player in the retail IT market in Europe, in return for the latter’s commitment that it will buy and sell Intel-based PCs only. Finally, the EC found that Intel has given payments to European computer manufacturers that had nothing to do with the latter’s purchases from Intel. These payments were only to buy their loyalty to Intel.

Intel Corporation has also been criticized by the Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) for the company’s alleged practice of interfering in AMD’s launches of its products in the Korean market. Intel is said to have coerced and also paid customers in order to get them to use only Intel chips and products. KFTC has fined Intel 26 billion wons (USD 25.4 million).

Other regulatory bodies such as Japan Fair Trade Commission and the US Federal Trade Commission too have given negative rulings against Intel.

Read more about the allegedly murky, unfair and unethical business practices of an IT major, here.