A commission spokesman declined to comment on the matter on Monday.<\/p>\n
If found guilty of trying to thwart competitors illegally, the Santa Clara, California-based company could face fines running of 10% of its annual worldwide revenue, which stood at €37.6 billion in 2008.<\/p>\n
The Financial Times newspaper reported on Monday that the fine could top the record penalties that Brussels has slapped on Microsoft in its long-running antitrust battle with the US software giant.<\/p>\n
The commission originally fined Microsoft €497 million ($674 million) for abusing its dominating grip on the market for personal computer operating systems.<\/p>\n
However, five years of legal battles and an unsuccessful appeal later, the fines have reached €1.676 billion, although Microsoft has appealed against part of the sum.<\/p>\n
The European Commission filed antitrust charges against Intel in July 2007 accusing the company of offering “substantial” rebates to computer makers that mostly used its chips.<\/p>\n
In July 2008, it lodged a fresh complaint, charging Intel of offering discounts to a major European personal computer distributor to favour its products, paid a PC maker to delay marketing a model line with a rival’s chips, and also paid it to use Intel’s own microprocessors in preference.<\/p>\n
Intel’s chief competitor Advanced Micro Devices has long accused Intel of using its grip on the market for microchips, the brains of personal computers, to choke off competition.<\/p>\n