Massive EU Antitrust Fine Levied Against Intel

The European Commission has fined Intel 1.06 billion Euros—about $1.45 billion—for alleged anticompetitive actions against longtime rival AMD and enjoined any future such actions, report Reuters and the NY Times. The fine, a record, is more than double the one imposed on Microsoft in 2004, and 25% larger than a 2008 penalty against a glass maker for price fixing. Intel had no immediate comment, but is expected to appeal. Other tech companies facing EU antitrust scrutiny include Google, Cisco, Microsoft and IBM, with the latter two having actually been charged.

The size of the fine underscores the dominant role European regulators have adopted in antitrust, an area of law that somewhat faded from the U.S. radar screen over the last 30 years, especially during the mostly Republican administrations in that period. That quiescence will change under Obama, according to commentators and the new head of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. In any case, antitrust enforcement is an increasingly global affair and, with antitrust laws in over 100 countries, one wonders whether an international treaty might one day emerge. The political obstacles, however, are probably formidable.

Moore's Law in Nano-Land

They don't teach Moore's Law in law school - well, they didn't used to - but it's a classic: the number of components you can cram on a single chip doubles every 24 months (some say 18 months). It's held true for over forty years, and roughly correlates to computer power. Very roughly, since your PC today crashes almost as often as last year's model.

Will Moore's Law ever peter out? After all, there is another law, called the law of diminishing returns. Thankfully, today comes news from IBM and HP that they are continuing advances in nano-computing, getting small clusters of atoms - and even individual atoms - to behave like little electronic components.

So, no end in sight for Moore's Law so far. Takes us one step closer to the day when lawyer-bots will read contracts and file lawsuits, while "wetware" lawyers can stay home and write blogs ...