Intel agrees to settle U.S. antitrust case

Intel Corp., the world’s largest computer chip maker, has agreed to settle its antitrust case with the Federal Trade Commission, the agency said Tuesday.

The FTC issued a statement announcing that details of the settlement would be disclosed Wednesday at a news conference.

The FTC had sued in December, accusing Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel of illegally using its dominance for a decade to block customers from buying competitors’ products. The agency said Intel forced computer makers into exclusive deals and blocked rivals from making their chips work with Intel’s.

Intel accounts for more than 80% of global computer chip sales, dwarfing Advanced Micro Devices Inc., its closest competitor. Intel agreed to pay AMD $1.25 billion in November to settle a lawsuit by the Sunnyvale, Calif., company.

In May 2009, Intel was fined 1.06 billion euros, or $1.45 billion at the time, by the European Union. In addition to the penalty, a record amount for the EU, Intel was ordered to stop using illegal rebates to thwart competitors.