Intel reached an agreement with antitrust authorities in Japan but has appealed the European ruling and a similar decision in South Korea. The release of the Commission's analysis comes as Intel is being investigated in the United States by the FTC. The company has also faced scrutiny on Capitol Hill. Intel has argued that the model used overseas is worlds apart from the U.S. model and should not be seen as an indicator of how the FTC might proceed. Meanwhile, new Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney had vowed to reinvigorate antitrust enforcement in the Obama administration.

An Intel spokesman issued a strongly worded reaction, saying that there is nothing new in what the Commission released and its decision reflects "the underlying bias we have come to expect from the case team that ran this investigation." "We are convinced that the Commission's conclusions regarding our business practices are wrong, both factually and legally," he said, pointing out that the panel "relied heavily on speculation" and "ignored or minimized hard evidence of what actually happened."