FTC reaches anti-competition agreement with Intel

Intel was sued for anti-competitive practices in the x86, graphics and chipset markets

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has finally reached an agreement with Intel over the chip firm's anti-competitive practices.

Intel was originally sued by the FTC in December 2009 for monopolistic abuses and anti-competitive behaviour in the x86, graphics and chipset markets.

Both parties have now reach an agreement to avoid two further years of litigation through the courts.

"This case demonstrates that the FTC is willing to challenge anti-competitive conduct by even the most powerful companies in the fastest moving industries," said FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz.

The consent agreement was also designed to generate healthy competition, rather than simply to punish Intel, Leibowitz added.

"By accepting this settlement, we open the door to competition today and address Intel's anti-competitive conduct in a way that may not have been available in a final judgement years from now," he said.

"Everyone, including Intel, gets a greater degree of certainty about the rules of the road, which allows all the companies in this dynamic industry to move ahead and build better, more innovative products."

Under the settlement Intel has to pay $10m (£6.3m) over two years to software vendors that were transgressed by its anti-competitive practices. Intel will also have to stop offering benefits to PC and laptop makers.

The agreement also forces Intel to modify intellectual property agreements with AMD and Nvidia, freeing up the joint ventures and making it impossible for Intel to sue for infringement.

Via Technologies' x86 licensing agreement will be extended for five years, and the PCI Express Bus will be operable for six years so that it does not limit GPU performance.

Finally, Intel has to offer full disclosure to software developers that its own compilers favour Intel hardware when benchmarking.