The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday sued the chip maker Intel, accusing it of using its dominant market position “to stifle competition and strengthen its monopoly.”
In its complaint, the F.T.C. accused the chip maker of a systematic campaign to block rivals from selling their microchips by cutting off access to the market.
The filing goes beyond charges in cases brought recently by European regulators and the New York state attorney general in focusing on video graphics chips and software in addition to Intel’s core market, the microprocessors that sit at the heart of personal computers. Intel supplies about 80 percent of the PC microprocessor chips worldwide.
The F.T.C. move, according to Andrew I. Gavil, a law professor at Howard University, is “very significant because it is broader in scope than any of the current cases.”
In all, the F.T.C. contends that Intel engaged in a pattern of conduct that “put the brakes on superior competitive products that threatened” its microchip market share.
“Intel has engaged in a deliberate campaign to hamstring competitive threats to its monopoly,” said Richard A. Feinstein, director of the agency’s Bureau of Competition. “It’s been running roughshod over the principles of fair play and the laws protecting competition on the merits.”
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