The New York Attorney General has hopped on the bandwagon and launched a lawsuit against Intel over its alleged antitrust actions.

Intel’s business practices have been scrutinized across the globe and so far in nearly every country that it has faced accusations, it has been found guilty. Korea, Japan and most recently Europe have all come to the consensus that Intel engaged in illegal practices regarding its sale tactics and poised unfair competition to rival AMD (Advanced Micro Devices).The recent  European Commission inquiry handed down the stiffest punishment ever seen in the country, with a 1.45 Billion dollar fine.

Intel is accused of misusing its domination position and employing the use of illegal anti -competitive actions to reduce AMD’s presence in the marketplace. This was accomplished by offering enormous monetary rebates to OEM manufacturers in exchange for reducing the usage of AMD products in their units.

This latest lawsuit by NY Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, is separate from AMD’s own lawsuit launched in the same state in 2005 which expected to go tor trial later this year. The US Federal Trade Commission also began investigating the blue giant after the South Korean FTC found Intel guilty in 2008.

In a written press statement Cuomo claimed that, “Rather than compete fairly, Intel used bribery and coercion to maintain a stranglehold on the market. Intel’s actions not only unfairly restricted potential competitors, but also hurt average consumers who were robbed of better products and lower prices.”

Many analysts expect this latest latest action by a State legal body may in fact kick start the US FTC into becoming more aggressive in their own investigation and it appears likely that there may be a separate federal inquiry into the situation in the near future.

Written with Content from the Associated Press