The
European Commission's five year investigation of Intel centres on
its behaviour in a market that it dominates, though less completely
than before. The company has 80% of the world's micro chip market
and the Commission is investigating whether or not it abused that
power.
Commission officials are said to have outlined their case before
a recently introduced panel which acts as devils advocate in order
to weed out weak cases before they go public.
Last year Commission officials raided Intel offices in Europe to
collect documents that could contain evidence of illegal
anti-competitive behaviour.
Last month it took control of a pre-existing German
investigation into whether or not Intel put pressure on electronics
retailer Media Markt to stock only computers using Intel chips and
not those of its rival, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).
"The commission is concerned that Intel has been putting
pressure on Media Markt not to stock computers that include AMD
chips as opposed to Intel chips," EU spokesman Jonathan Todd told
reporters in September.
AMD faced a blow to its US antitrust case last week when a judge
in Delaware ruled that all the allegations of illegal behaviour
that took place outside the borders of the US cannot form any part
of a US case. That was said to represent around half of AMD's case
in that court.
Competition from AMD is stronger than ever before, which is an
argument that Intel may use in any future case. Intel will shed
10,000 employees by the middle of next year in a cost cutting
exercise which analysts have said is caused by AMD's more effective
competition.
