American computer microprocessor chip maker Intel, which dominates the world market, might be choking on its own gagabytes pretty soon as it reportedly faces a possible new record one billion Euro (USD 1.33 billion) fine from the European Union for alleged anti-competitive abuses against US rival AMD, including giving large rebates to computer makers, paying them to delay or cancel AMD products and offering chips below cost in a bid to drive its competitor out of the market.

It’s in keeping with Intel’s methods, and thinking, which isn’t as fast as its products, at least one of which failed to perform although being touted as the next best thing in technology. For years now, Intel has flooded certain media it finds friendly with lucrative ads as it tried to bury AMD under a barrage of unfair tactics.

They should have checked with Microsoft first to find out what happens when you try those stunts in the EU. Until now, Microsoft, the world’s largest software company, faced the biggest EU financial penalties after similarly being accused of abusing its dominance and was fined 497 million Euros, about USD 663 million today. Intel’s fine reportedly could be double that, although its arrogance in believing it could hoodwink the EU, which has sharp eyes when trying to find technological predators, could surpass a billion times that.

If the hammer falls, Intel might have to re-think how to salvage its dwindling image for tactics that are near-criminal and under different circumstances would put some people in jail, but this just shows you that men in suits and ties and computer chips can steal more than someone with a gun. Intel’s abuses are tantamount to slowing not just competition, but advances at a time when the world most needs them, because a monopoly has no incentive to do anything but overcharge and sit on its hands. There’s nothing like competition to keep you on your toes, and by all accounts, AMD is just that – except when it comes to trying to rig the deal.

The European Commission began investigating Intel in 2000 after AMD filed a complaint about its methods in Europe. The EU’s Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, the “Cartel- Buster” who had Microsoft nearly begging for leniency over lunch with her, must be licking her chops in delight she can now put the screws to a company that’s been charged with being even more damaging to EU consumers and businesses and tried to hide through lobbying.

Of course, Intel denies everything because it’s not good business to tell consumers and businesses you want to overcharge them by keeping a monopoly and admit to practicing anti-trust behaviour. So, of course, they are not guilty of anything yet, unless the EU goes through with citing a fine. “Overall, Intel’s conduct is lawful, pro-competitive and beneficial to consumers,” Robert Manetta, an Intel spokesman in London, said, proving that Intel has a future in making spinning tops as well. But that’s what guys like him are paid to do.

AMD said that Intel has been conducting anti-competitive practices to maintain a dominant 81.9 percent share of the market that hasn’t changed in years, despite modifications in technology. AMD has about 17.7 percent of the market but would clearly have more if allowed to fairly compete on a level playing field. AMD noted that even when Intel misjudged the market with the introduction of the poorly received Itanium, and AMD’s Xeon had a clear run at the server space, the relative market shares barely changed. AMD contends that Intel uses subsidies to make sure manufacturers use its chips and ignore the competition.

It could have been a lot worse for Intel, as the EU could legally assess a fine equivalent to 10 percent of its more than USD 37.6 billion annual revenues (and compound that by 10% for each year of the infringement), an amount that could even put it out of business. “I would be surprised if the fine isn’t as high or higher than in the Microsoft case,” Howard Cartlidge, head of the EU competition group at law firm Olswang in London, told The New York Times. “Technology markets are where the European Commission has perceived particular problems due to dominant companies.” A person familiar with the European Commission’s deliberations said it was planning to highlight specific instances of suspected illegal discounting and order an end to those practices, the Times reported.

AMD also said that a leading retailer based in Germany, Media Markt, carried Intel computers exclusively in exchange for annual payments by Intel. In Britain, DSG, the parent company of the retailers Dixons and PC World, limits AMD’s share of its business to less than 10 percent because of payments by Intel, according to AMD. The EU has its own problems in the way it conducts its business, but it’s not afraid of taking on giants, as Microsoft found out, and even the technology granddaddy of all, IBM, is under an EU microscope for the way it runs its business, which brought another complaint. The Americans may be the masters of the universe in technology, but they’re also world champions in trying to run competitors out of business, antithetical to EU thinking.

The complaints against Intel are nothing new in how it operates. The company has already been found guilty of anti-competitive practices in Japan and Korea, and faces investigations by the EU and the US Federal Trade Commission. In 2005, AMD, in a civil suit, said its share of business with the European computer maker Fujitsu-Siemens fell after Intel offered a “special discount” on chips. AMD said Fujitsu-Siemens accepted the discount in exchange for hiding references to AMD computers on its web site and in a retail catalog.

Intel rose to predominance in the 1990s not just through technology, but advertising, a game of disguise and duplicity, which it has perpetuated. Then, its campaign to stick on computers that there was “Intel Inside” made the company and its Pentium processor household names. But now, thanks to the EU, Intel could be on the outside looking in, and if there’s any justice, they’ll see a different name. Maybe AMD, maybe another company that is given a chance to break into the monopoly of Intel.