News and New Products

European Officials Raid Intel Offices

By Richard Ball -- Electronics Weekly, 7/14/2005

Officials from the European Commission have recently 'inspected' several of Intel's offices in Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, part of an ongoing antitrust investigation.

The Commission said it was also visiting the offices of PC makers across the region.

“I can confirm that the Commission of the European community conducted searches of Intel’s offices in Swindon, Munich, Milan and Madrid,” a spokeswoman for Intel told Electronics Weekly.

She said the company has been working with the EC for several years, providing tens of thousands of documents as part of its ongoing investigations: “We have a long history of cooperation with regulators,” she added.

“We do believe that our business practices are both fair and lawful,” said the Intel spokeswoman.

The move by the EC comes just weeks after Intel was served with lawsuits by AMD, where the smaller rival alleges that Intel engaged in anti-competitive practices.

AMD has suggested that Intel has maintained its monopoly power in the x86 processor market by coercing customer not to deal with AMD. The legal spat between the firms has escalated, spreading to Japan.

Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini said earlier this month, “Intel has always respected the laws of the countries in which we operate. We compete aggressively and fairly to deliver the best value to consumers. This will not change,”

“Over the years, Intel has been involved in other antitrust suits and faced similar issues. Every one of those matters has been resolved to our satisfaction. We unequivocally disagree with AMD’s claims and firmly believe this latest suit will be resolved favourably, like the others,” Otellini said.

In April Intel said it would accept recommendations from the Japanese Fair Trade Commission to alter its business practices in Japan.

The Japanese FTC found that Intel has used its monopoly power to restrict open competition, including forcing some PC makers to buy 100 per cent of their processors from Intel.

Electronics Weekly is a sister publication to Electronic News.