People visit the Intel display at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, January 2008. The European Commission wants to stop what it considers abusive trade practices by US microchip giant Intel, a German press report has said.

The European Commission wants to stop what it considers abusive trade practices by US microchip giant Intel, a German press report said Wednesday.

The office of EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes has gathered evidence on alleged abuse of Intel's dominant market position and the EU's executive arm was expected to establish its position within a few months, the Financial Times Deutschland reported.

The commission feels that Intel, which covers about 80 percent of the global market for micro processors, paid commissions to some computer equipment makers to use Intel chips rather than chosing its rival brand AMD, the daily said.

A complaint led to an investigation by European Union competition authorities.

Intel also allegedly paid companies to delay or suspend the launch of products using AMD chips, and offered products for less then the cost of production, the report said.

It added that Intel could face a fine of up to 10 percent of annual sales, or around 2.6 billion euros (4.1 billion dollars).

Officials at the European Commission were not immediately available for comment on the report.

If such a fine was levied, it would be one of the biggest ever by the EU Commission, which fined US software giant Microsoft a record 899 million euros for failing to respect another antitrust ruling.

© 2008 AFP