Fair trade

The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) has found that Intel has abused its monopoly power to exclude fair and open competition, thereby violating Section 3 of Japan’s Antimonopoly Act.

The findings reveal that Intel used illegal tactics to stop its competitors from increasing their market share by imposing limitations on Japanese PC manufacturers.

The result, the JFTC said, was that the market share of Intel’s competitors AMD and Transmeta dropped from 24% in 2002 to 14% in 2003.

Specifically, the JFTC found that some manufacturers were required to buy 100% of their CPUs from Intel and another manufacturer was forced to curtail its non-Intel purchases to 10% or less. Intel separately conditioned rebates on the exclusive use of Intel CPUs in specific PC product lines or brands in order to eliminate competitor CPUs from key OEM brand lines.

Intel’s activities in Japan include the use of its “Intel Inside” program, market development funds and other rebate programs. According to Intel competitor AMD, Intel’s tactics locked-in OEMs and prevented them from doing business with Intel’s competitors.