On Friday the EU regulators charged Intel with abusing its dominant market position. The European Commission said it had sent a "statement of objections", the first formal step towards possible fines, to Intel on July 26 alleging that it had tried to exclude main rival AMD from the market.

"First, Intel has provided substantial rebates to various Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) conditional on them obtaining all or the great majority of their CPU requirements from Intel," the Commission said in a statement.

According to a “preliminary view” Intel had infringed EU anti-trust rules which prevent companies from abusing their dominant market position.

Besides giving “substantial rebates”, the European Commission said that the world’s biggest chip maker acted against AMD by making to manufacturers to get them to delay or cancel product lines using AMD chips. Also Intel provided CPU chips to strategic customers at below cost "in the context of bids against AMD."

The EC gave Intel 10 weeks to respond to antitrust charges and if found guilty the company faces fines up to 10 percent of its annual turnover, as much as $3.5 billion.

AMD, which has its own antitrust suit pending against Intel, said that the European Union charges against Intel would benefit consumers and computer makers.

"We are confident that this statement of objections will be a catalyst in opening the global microprocessor markets for the benefit of consumers and PC companies alike," said Giuliano Meroni, AMD president for Europe, Middle East and Africa, quoted by Reuters. Intel spokesman Chuck Malloy also declined to make any comment.

Intel is dominating the chip market for 11 years and has a market share of 80%. Earlier this month Intel announced second-quarter revenue of $8.7 billion, operating income of $1.35 billion, net income of $1.3 billion and earnings per share (EPS) of 22 cents.