14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this year, in May, the EU Commission ruled against the world's leading chip maker, the Santa Clara, California-based Intel, in a rather extensive antitrust case. According to the former's decision, the latter was to pay a record fine of US$1.45 billion, which Intel was quick to disapprove, stating that it believed the commission had misinterpreted and ignored some of the available evidence, which could have turned the case in its favor. On that note, it looks like the European Union's ombudsman has criticized the decision, stating that the Commission had failed to record “potentially exculpatory” evidence from a witness in its investigation.
According to a recent news-article on the Wall Street Journal, ombudsman P. Nikiforos Diamandouros has found that the EU Commission committed “maladministration” in the antitrust case against the chip giant Intel Corporation. In a yet-unpublished report, the ombudsman states that the commission failed to record in the case file a formal account of an meeting in August 2006 between the commission investigators and a senior executive at PC vendor Dell. Apparently, the yet unidentified executive told investigators that Dell viewed AMD's chip performance as “very poor” compared to Intel's offering.
If the report is correct, the EU Commission would be put in a rather unfavorable light, as it would imply that Dell used Intel's chips because of their increased performance and not for financial reasons, as it was stated in the antitrust case. Unfortunately for Intel, the report cannot turn the decision in its favor, but could help the chip maker in its attempt to prove that the EU Commission's ruling was unfair.
It is yet to be determined how things will go for Chipzilla, as the company recently appealed to Europe's second highest court, the Luxembourg-based Court of First Instant, hoping to find justice.