

EU Levies $1.45 Billion Fine on Intel  - jeroen
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124220736617414635.html

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chaosmachine
WSJ would only let me see the first two paragraphs.

[http://finance.yahoo.com/news/EU-fines-Intel-145-billion-
apf...](http://finance.yahoo.com/news/EU-fines-Intel-145-billion-
apf-15227906.html)

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earl
Protip: grab 5-8 contiguous words from the preview, go to news.google, search
for that phrase, read your WSJ article for free.

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mildweed
This was much, much quieter than the Microsoft proceedings. Its generally the
same story, but it was probably quieter since Intel isn't the OS, it doesn't
evoke such strong emotions in the users.

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wheels
It's less emotional, but in my book more cut and dry as well. Microsoft was
bundling "free" things, for the most part, which honestly, I do believe have a
part in a modern, rich desktop. Intel on the other hand was basically paying
major vendors not to buy _anything_ from its main competitor.

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ewanmcteagle
How is this different from pricing and special discounts?

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Brushfire
Its not. They just have 80% market share in a huge market, so they are treated
differently. Technically these were optional rebates by intel, which I think
is what pisses the intel guys off so much about this.

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dantheman
And rightly so, the whole history of antitrust law is completely full of
injustice. It is impossible to tell what is legal or illegal because it is not
defined, it is merely a tool for the government control successful companies.

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ilitirit
Does anyone know what the EU does with the money? Is it distributed among the
member states? Is it added to their budget?

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blue1
"The amount of the fines is paid into the Community budget. The fines
therefore help to finance the European Union and reduce the tax burden on
individuals."

[http://ec.europa.eu/competition/cartels/overview/faqs_en.htm...](http://ec.europa.eu/competition/cartels/overview/faqs_en.html)

~~~
laut
I doubt that they will lower the payments from the member states based on
this. And if they did, I doubt that the member states will reduce the tax
burdens because of that.

They have given fines out before. If anyone can point to an example where the
tax burden was reduced after a fine, I would like to see it.

~~~
blue1
As I understand it, about 65% of the EU budget is paid by the states as a
percentage of their Gross National Income. This percentage is decided by the
Council (i.e. the member states themselves). So in theory the fine could
lighten the burden on the states. However, the 2009 budget of the EU is about
130G EUR, the Intel fine is about 1% of that, and the EU budget is small
compared to even a single member state, so the amount per citizen is
negligible anyway.

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pierrefar
Text of the decision:
[http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/0...](http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/745&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en)

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nathanwdavis
Why would you submit an article that requires you to be subscribed in order to
read more than a few paragraphs!!

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jeroen
I didn't. I looked for the best article on the subject, and especially one
that didn't require registration, because I always have trouble with NYTimes
articles.

I didn't know that the WSJ required registration, I don't have an account
there, and I can still read the entire article.

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wheels
Same here (no account, full article). Perhaps it's tied to location? You seem
to be in Europe as well ... maybe it doesn't require registration from non-US
IPs or something.

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pbz
I'm in the US and it wants me to subscribe

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LostInTheWoods
Is it just me or does 1.45B seem just a bit excessive?

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jrockway
Now I know how European countries pay for their very nice public
transportation systems.

