FT.com / Technology - EU produces evidence for €1.1bn Intel fine.

Internal e-mails at Dell purported to warn of “severe and prolonged” repercussions if the computer manufacturer switched business away from Intel and in favour of the chipmaker’s main rival, according to evidence made public by Europe’s top competition regulator on Monday.

Internal documents from other Intel customers, including Lenovo, NEC, Hewlett-Packard and retailer Media Saturn Holding, also showed rebates were linked to tight restrictions on the amount of chips that could be purchased from rival AMD, according to the European Commission.

The competition watchdog on Monday published a non-confidential version of its May decision, which accused Intel of breaching EU antitrust rules and imposed a €1.1bn ($1.6bn) fine. This was the largest single penalty imposed on any company for competition breaches in the EU

Demonstrating that big business does not believe in the merits of free markets.