US regulator temporarily suspends antitrust litigation against Intel

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has suspended trial proceedings against Intel as both are willing to work out an out-of-court settlement to end the lawsuit bought on by the regulator accusing the world's largest chip maker of stifling competition.

The FTC had filed a lawsuit in December 2009 against Intel after it had warned the Santa Clara, California-based technology giant to change its business practices of stifling competition by using "threats and rewards" to force computer makers not to buy chips from rivals. (See: FTC warns Intel; asks company to change business practices)

Chipmakers, Nvidia Corporation and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) had complained to the FTC that Intel was using its monopoly in the semiconductor industry by bundling its own graphics chips at below cost to keep computer makers from using their chips.

Intel said yesterday, ''Lawyers for the FTC and Intel Corporation today filed a joint motion to suspend administrative trial proceedings while the parties consider potential settlement of the case originally filed by the FTC on Dec. 16, 2009.''

Intel, which holds a virtual monopoly over computer chips with over 80 per cent of global market share, has until 22 July 2010 to arrive at a settlement with the FTC or the regulator will proceed with the case.

Intel said that the terms of the proposed consent order are confidential and it will make no additional public comment on the matter at this time.