Intel to appeal EU fine of 1 billion euros

US computer chip giant Intel has hit back at the European Commission's record 1.06-billion-euro fine for anti-competitive practices, saying it would fight the ruling with an appeal in EU courts.EU antitrust regulators fined US chip giant Intel a record 1.06 billion euros (1.45 billion dollars) on Wednesday, claiming it abused its stranglehold on the semiconductor market to crush its main rival.The company hit back, saying it would fight the ruling with an appeal in EU courts, raising the spectre of a new antitrust saga between Brussels and a US technology giant after Microsoft's years of European legal battles.The European Commission, Europe's top competition watchdog, accused Intel of using illegal loyalty rebates to squeeze rivals out of the market for central processing units (CPUs) -- the brains inside personal computers.The Santa Clara, California-based company dominated the 22-billion-euro (30-billion-dollar) market for the ubiquitous x86 CPUs with a 70-percent share during the more than five years it was accused of breaking EU antitrust rules."Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years," EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said. "Such a serious and sustained violation of the EU's antitrust rules cannot be tolerated," she added.