If you had any faith that corporations are playing fair and doing their best to offer consumers fair prices in a competitive market, you are about to be disappointed. At this very moment in America, monopolistic corporations are robbing Americans of fair prices and freedom of choice.

America’s economy has become increasingly dominated by a small number of dominant corporations who have managed to, sometimes illegally, block out the competition.  They have also used their money and influence to escape antitrust enforcement.  These corporations are the new American monopolies.  They are our modern day railroad barons, and they are robbing Americans of their money and their freedom to choose.  

By blocking out their competition, these monopolies are able to charge unfairly high prices.  The vast majority of consumers never know that they were, in essense, pickpocketed without ever noticing.

One of these monopolies, Intel Corporation, engaged in a deliberate, secretive, decade-long scheme to illegally block out and ultimately cripple their competition.    

Have you ever browsed through laptops and desktops at your local Best Buy, Frys or other computer retailer and wondered why almost all of them have a little blue sticker that says "Intel Inside"?  

Those little blue stickers mean that the central processors in all those computers are made by just one company, Intel Corporation.  Although most consumers assume that Intel’s dominant market share was earned through honest innovation and hard work, the truth is far more insidious and troubling.

On November 3rd, 2009, The New York Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, sued Intel Corporation for secretly and covertly using billions of dollars in bribes to engage in a decade-long "worldwide campaign of illegal, exclusionary conduct" to compel all of the world's major computer manufacturers not to use x86 microprocessors made by Intel's competition.
 
Through subpoenaed evidence and testimony from Intel and numerous computer manufacturers, Cuomo revealed that Intel had, among other things, paid 6-billion dollars to Dell in exchange for complete exclusivity.  Intel also paid hundreds of millions of dollars to all the other major computer manufacturers like HP for near-exclusivity.   Most importantly, these secret bribes were coupled with illicit threats, which compelled computer manufacturers to cooperate with Intel or face severe financial consequences from Intel.   For instance, HP’s executives were so fearful of Intel’s retribution that they refused to accept thousands of free processors from Intel’s competitor.

Intel's monopolistic tactics ultimately crippled Intel's only major competitor, AMD. Faced with increasing financial pressure due to Intel's artificial caps on AMD's revenues, AMD had to sell their factories to survive through Intel’s anticompetitive tactics.   Thus, Intel was able to maintain a monopoly over the x86 processor market to this day, and as a result, consumers were not able to have the benefit of competitive pricing or the freedom to choose.

Intel's illegal tactics are only the tip of the iceberg.  We are concerned that justice will not be served when Intel is due in court in February 2012.

With time running out before their antitrust court date, Intel recently made a well-timed, 4.4 billion dollar investment in New York on September 27th, 2011 with a consortium of other tech companies for a chip research facility.  Intel's investment was announced by now New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, the once Attorney General who sued Intel in 2009 for egregious antitrust violations.

Precisely and curiously one month later, on October 27th, 2011, Intel formally requested for the New York antitrust lawsuit to be dismissed based on Intel's premise that the New York Attorney General cannot sue Intel on behalf of New York's citizens and 4,000 public entities besides the state.

Frankly, we smell a skunk.   Common sense tells us that the timing of Intel's "investment", Intel's subsequent request for dismissal and Intel's upcoming court date are not a coincidence.  We demand justice for Intel's crimes.

If Intel succeeds in dismissing its antitrust lawsuit, it could set a dangerous precedent that could compromise the right of consumers to be protected by regulators.  We are here to urge The New York Attorney General and America's courts to fairly and aggressively prosecute Intel for their antitrust abuses spanning nearly a decade.

Justice must be served to Intel independently of Intel's well-timed "investment" in New York, and reparations must be made to The People.    Intel's premise for dismissal may endanger the responsibility and role that regulators play in protecting the best interests of The People.  We The People must protect the right of the New York Attorney General to represent the best interests of New Yorkers and ultimately, all of America's citizens.

Please sign this petition asking the current New York Attorney General to ensure that justice is served to Intel and other corporations who engage in economic crimes that are difficult to detect.  We need to protect the right of regulatory agencies to pursue corporate crimes on behalf of The People!

 

Resources and Reading:

"IBM and Intel Start Up Chip Research Hub in Albany"

http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/09/27/investment.to.create.2500.high.tech.jobs/

"Governor Cuomo Announces $4.4 Billion Investment By International Technology Group Led By Intel and IBM..."

http://www.governor.ny.gov/press/092711chiptechnologyinvestment

"Intel Seeks Dismissal of Claims in Antitrust Suit"

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP7f5f8904ae4c43dca0b2bf8f35cb99f8.html

"Intel's Chipped Credibility"

http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/14/technology/parloff_intel.fortune

New York Attorney General's Antitrust Complaint Filed Against Intel Corporation:

http://www.ag.ny.gov/media_center/2009/nov/NYAG_v_Intel_COMPLAINT_FINAL.pdf