WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Federal regulators filed suit against U.S. microchip giant Intel charging the company strategically works to inhibit market competition.
Intel "has waged a systematic campaign to shut out rivals' competing microchips," the Federal Trade Commission said in a release issued Wednesday.
The company's "anti-competitive tactics," stifled competition from "superior competitive products that threatened its monopoly," the FTC said.
Intel's sales department uses "threats and rewards," to coerce to maintain its market dominance, the FTC said, naming Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM as Intel customers boxed in by the company's sales techniques.
Beyond suspect selling, the FTC charged Intel with purposefully designing compiler software to restrict its performance with microchips made by other firms by having it match up best with Intel's microchips.
Richard Feinstein, director of the FTC Bureau of Competition said Intel has been "running roughshod over the principles of fair play and the laws protecting competition on the merits."
