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Intel : Two Days Until The EU Antitrust Verdict Comes In

Failure to dismantle the case will lead to hefty antitrust fines

By Bogdan Botezatu, Hardware Editor

11th of March 2008, 11:22 GMT

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Intel has two days to prepare its defense

Chip manufacturer Intel is preparing its defense against the EU antitrust charges that have been issued last month. The lawsuit, grounded on regulators' allegations that the chip manufacturer had abused

its dominant market position will result in severe financial damages if Intel is found guilty.

The US-based company has only two days to convince the court that the allegations are not true. The hearings will be held at the European Commission in Brussels, behind closed doors.

"We hope to convince the commission that the microprocessor market is competitive and is behaving as one would expect a competitive market to behave to the benefit of consumers," spokesman Chuck Mulloy claimed. We believe our business practices are lawful," he added.

The chip manufacturer has been accused in July last year of offering "substantial" rebates to PC vendors and system integrators that would pick its own chips rather than AMD's computer processors. The lawsuit was the last straw in a six-year investigation led by the European Commission. More than that, the competition watchdog claimed that Intel paid its clients in order to cancel orders for computing systems built on Advanced Micro Devices' technology.

Earlier in February, the German offices of the chip giant have been raided by the European Union regulators. The aim of their search also included major computer retailers in Britain, France and Germany, such as the famous consumer electronics hypermarket Mediamarkt. During the raid, the EU regulators attempted to seize evidence that the company had abused its market position.

If Intel is found guilty of the mentioned accusations, the company will not only pay huge amounts of fines, but the regulators can also order Intel to change its business strategy. A commission spokeswoman refused to comment on the case as the investigation is on-going, but said that the final verdict will be given after the hearings.

TAGS:

Intel | AMD | Antitrust | Lawsuit

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