European Commission Raids Intel and Others

About two weeks ago, AMD filed an antitrust lawsuit against Intel. Then yesterday, Intel’s offices in England, Spain, Ital, and Germany were raided by the European Commission.

The Euopean Commission also raided offices of other companies that make and/or sell computers. Intel itself claims that its business practices are legal and fair.

“DG Competition officials, accompanied by officials from national competition authorities are conducting inspections of several premises of Intel Corp. in Europe as well as a number of IT firms manufacturing or selling computers,” said EU spokesman Jonathan Todd. “The investigations are being carried out within the framework of an ongoing competition case.” AP explains:

Last year, the commission sent formal notices to France, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Italy and Germany seeking information on government procurement tenders for computers that either require they contain Intel chips or specify a chip speed only the U.S. giant can provide. That investigation was sparked by Advanced Micro Devices.

EU antitrust regulators reached a preliminary conclusion in 2002 that there was insufficient evidence to bring any charges. But in June 2004, regulators said they would look into Intel’s business practices again after AMD refused to withdraw its complaint.

AMD’s lawsuit accuses Intel of bullying 38 computer manufacturers into using their chips instead of AMD’s. Intel says that AMD is making this up because they aren’t doing as well.

Intel wants these investigations to go smoothly and has no intentions of resisting. “Intel’s normal practice is to attempt to co-operate with regulatory authorities,” said a U.K. spokesman for Intel.

Chris is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest ebusiness news.