Intel has been slapped with anti-competitive suit by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which claims that the company 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 wide-ranging allegations from the FTC also include claims that it secretly redesigned key software to deliberately stunt the performance of competitors' chips.
It also said it aimed to prevent the chip giant use its dominance in microprocessors to stifle smaller video graphics rivals such as Nvidia.
It said Intel used a series of threats and rewards to influence the chips computer manufacturers such as Dell, HP and IBM used in their products. Last month Intel agreed to pay $1.25 billion to AMD to settle suits relating to its business practices.
The commission said that its action seek to “remedy the damage that Intel has done to competition, innovation, and, ultimately, the American consumer."
The FTC suit does not seek monetary damages, but aims to change the company's conduct and set an industry example, the FTC said.
Intel said the FTC's case was “misguided” and “based largely on claims that the FTC added at the last minute and has not investigated.”
It said the case was intended to make new rules for regulating business conduct that would “harm consumers by reducing innovation and raising prices.”
Meanwhile, Microsoft has made peace with the EU and its web browser demands agreeing to allow over 100 million European consumers the option of choosing from 12 web browsers, rather than get Internet Explorer by default.