[Condor51]

I don't get this?

I have an AMD (Quad Core, 687GB - or something really geeky) in this pc and could have had the latest Intel (Pentium IX or something) for the same price. It was my choice -- click 'a' or 'b', have it made, then shipped.

[wolf78]

I have an AMD (Quad Core, 687GB - or something really geeky) in this pc and could have had the latest Intel (Pentium IX or something) for the same price. It was my choice -- click 'a' or 'b', have it made, then shipped.

The problem is that outfits like Media Markt sell a huge number of PCs to private customers in the EU. They almost exclusively promote Intel. Just like the special rebate Dell got from Intel in the US (they now do offer AMD chipsets, too).

[amchugh]

It’s legal for a monopolist to compete on price, but when they tie rebates or price incentives to excluding the competitors product then they are engaged in behavior that is counter to a free market. I’m not sure exactly what Intel was doing, but I suspect it was analogous to MS deals that required a license payment for every PC shipped by companies they do business with regardless of whether or not Windows was installed. Note that companies that are not considered monopolies get to make the deals that a monopolist would be fined for making.