South Korea Vs. Intel

After a summer filled with various monopole accusations in both the United States and Europe, the largest central processing units in the world are now in the crosshair of the antitrust regulator officials from South Korea. The Korean Fair Trade Commission, which is responsible for enforcing antitrust policies in South Korea, just announced that it has completed a two year probe on Intel, which started in June 2005 after some media sources reported several incidents where Intel forced computer makers to reject chips made by its rivals.

According to the news sitesmh.com.au and to the South Korean media services, Intel abused its position as market leader and Nah Young-kyu, a commission official, said that ''the investigations have come to a close and the results have recently been presented to the decision-making committee to discuss possible sanctions''. A legal affair spokesperson, Chuck Mulloy, from the computer chip manufacturer confirmed that during the past week, the company received a formal statement of objection from the South Korean commission, but he said that the document is confidential and so he is not at liberty to discuss it. He did said however that the company has the right to defend itself from these accusations by requesting a hearing or by taking the whole issue to court in South Korea, if the hearing does not cover all allegations.

"We're hopeful that we'll be able to show the commission that the microprocessor market is functioning normally and that this is an extremely competitive market and that our conduct has been pro-competition and beneficial to consumers" Mulloy said. On the other side, a South Korean news agency cited anonymous officials that said that Intel is facing some penalties and that the regulator group will reach a final decision in October at the latest. While Intel faced many such accusations in the past and is even now under suspicion from the European Commission, the chip manufacturer never acknowledged any of them and always said that it did not break any laws.

Regulators from the European Commission accused Intel in late July of illegal business practices as the company abused its position and offered products at a very low price, sometimes even below the production costs, in order to undercut smaller rival computer chip maker Advanced Micro Devices.

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