On December 16 2009, the US Federal Trust Commission filed an anti-trust suit against Intel. Now the latest buzz is that both the parties have agreed upon a tentative settlement. The suit was filed against Intel by FTC on the grounds of violation of FTC Act, Section 5 by Intel.

However, Intel out rightly denies any such violation of the FTC Act. Also, Intel is firm on their stand that the allegations made by FTC against them are false.

The tentative settlement has been approved by the FTC and is subject to public comment period valid for 30 days. Then it’ll be finally approved by FTC.  The story goes like this. According to FTC, Intel involved in illegal stifling of market competition by barring its rivals in PC chips manufacturing to enter the market. The allegations were made against Intel for adopting illegal and anti-competitive tactics. According to FTC, the settlement will usher in innovativeness in PC chips offering more options for the users and will also compel Intel to offer its products at competitive pricing.

PC OEMs were given exclusivity payments by Intel to utilize only their chips. Also, they modified the industry technologies according to them for the same purpose. Besides, the settlement has open doors of the market to Intel rivals such as AMD and NVIDIA.

The settlement that has been done encompasses CPUs, graphics and chips. FTC believes that this investigation against Intel has gone beyond the achievements of other litigations earlier by the FTCs of Korea and Japan and the European Union. This settlement will put a check on Intel and prevent it from inventing new tactics to monopolize the market of chips once again.

The US Securities Exchange Commission had earlier penalized Dell Inc for receiving exclusivity payments from Intel.

In the eyes of Doug Melamed, senior VP at Intel who also holds the position of General Counsel, this agreement is a boost to Intel to continue competing with the leaders in the market. This would also motivate them towards providing the best of the products to the consumers at the most reasonable prices. Also, Doug Melamed is contented that the vast sum spent on this litigation against them jotted down by FTC has finally come to an end.