European Commission, Intel and the AMD Lawsuit

European Commission regulators probing Intel Offices

European Commission regulators launched fresh investigations on the several of Intel’s European offices early morning on Tuesday. These are as part of their investigations in the anti-trust suit against the world’s largest semiconductors producer. Intel spokesman Chuck Molloy has confirmed from the company’s side that the investigations are going on and they are fully cooperating with the regulating agencies.

Some of the targeted locations were Intel’s offices based in Milan, Madrid, Munich and Swindon (Britain). These investigations are as a result of the case their competitor in the chip market AMD filed a case against Intel last month claiming that they have been abusing their market position to harm the competition.

Thomas McCoy, AMD executive vice president, legal affairs and chief administrative officer said in a statement to a media group: “This is a pretty bold statement by [the European Union] that says we see a market failure that’s hurting innovation, and that we are going to be aggressive in protecting our consumers. What’s important to us at AMD is that [the rulings in Japan] and this action in Europe proves our contention that Intel’s monopoly is hurting innovation and that it’s a worldwide problem. We’re not just a competitor whining.”

however, the truth remains that the investigations have yet not found any proof against Intel in the Anti-trust case. Intel spokesman Chuck Molloy said: “Intel has a very long history of cooperating with regulators, including the staff of the EU,” he said. “We have been cooperating with the EU in this current probe for more than four years. During this period we have provided the staff with tens of thousands of documents and in hundreds of thousands of hours of meetings and interviews. We will continue to cooperate with the staff of the commission. We also believe our practices are both fair and lawful.”