The FTC vs. Intel

[Commentary] After almost a decade of relative silence from the Justice Department's antitrust division, the LA Times welcomes the Federal Trade Commission challenging how far a dominant company can go with discounts, incentives and penalties to hold on to its share of the market. The $1.25-billion settlement Intel reached last month with rival Advanced Micro Devices doesn't address Intel's pricing, just its exclusive deals with PC makers and retailers. Another important issue raised by the FTC's complaint is whether competition can be considered harmed if prices fall, as they have in chips. Just as the PC operating system is being overtaken by other technologies, though, so is the ground shifting under Intel. It has little sway over the markets for portable and mobile devices and not much presence in televisions, Blu-ray players and other increasingly intelligent devices in the living room. The commission is rightly concerned about companies extending their dominance unfairly from one market to another, but it needs to bear in mind how rapidly the computing world is changing.