Intel To face Specter And Meltdown lawsuits anyway

The vulnerabilities discovered some time ago in Intel processors, which were listed under the names Specter and Meltdown, could now cost the chip company quite dearly. A lawsuit has cleared a major hurdle. A number of customers accuse the company of knowing that there was a problem with the chips on the market at the time. But the silence was kept with the buyers.

So one finds themselves cheated by the manufacturer and will now in any case want to claim compensation since the processors have not delivered in terms of quality, which was suggested by the supplier’s price. Shortly after the issues became known in 2018, a total of 32 lawsuits were filed against Intel. These were then combined into a whole series of proceedings and should be treated as a class action. Since then, however, Intel’s lawyers have managed to torpedo the opening of the main proceedings by attempting to question the legality of the lawsuits as a whole. As a result, the complaints had to be resubmitted several times.

When did Intel know?

But that is now over, reports the British magazine The register appears. At least some of the individual lawsuits are now allowed. These are those of seven customers who purchased chips from the provider after August 2017. Previous purchases were considered irrelevant to the case, as Intel was likely unaware of the issues at the time. However, the group would be aware of the errors by the fall of 2017 at the latest. According to the allegations, the public disclosure was then delayed until early 2018 so as not to jeopardize upcoming Christmas activities.

According to the lawsuits, customers were deliberately sold defective CPUs during this period. Even this can cost Intel dearly. That depends on how many claims for damages are ultimately handled by the court. And of course, there is also the issue of image loss, which can be much more serious than the actual financial demands. Because if Intel emerges after the procedure as a provider for whom business is far more important than customer safety, that could certainly be a factor in future purchasing decisions of large customers.