IDG News Service —
The European Commission Thursday sent Intel a new set of antitrust charges, the second such charge list within a year, Europe's top regulator said in a statement.
The new charges "reinforce the Commission's preliminary view ... that Intel has infringed rules on abuse of dominant position with the aim of excluding its main rival AMD from the x86 central processing units market," the Commission said.
Describing it as a "supplementary statement of objections" (SSO), the Commission's latest charge sheet focuses on three new elements of alleged abusive conduct that have occurred since it sent its first statement of objections to Intel last July. The new charges will be incorporated into the existing lawsuit.
Intel has paid hefty rebates to a leading European PC retailer conditional on it selling only Intel-based PCs, the Commission said. The retailer isn't named but is understood to be Media Markt, one of Europe's biggest chains of PC shops.
In addition, Intel made payments to induce a leading OEM (original equipment manufacturer) to delay the planned launch of a product line incorporating an Advanced Micro Devices-based CPU. Again the OEM wasn't named.
The third charge is for paying big rebates to that same OEM conditional on it obtaining all of its laptop CPU requirements from Intel, the Commission said.
Besides the new charges, the Commission also added evidence supporting the original charges it made against the company a year ago.
After reviewing the new statement of objections, Intel issued a statement saying, "the issuance of a second SO suggests that the Commission supports AMD's position that Intel should be prevented from competing fairly and offering price discounts which have resulted in lower prices for consumers ... It's clear that the allegations stem from the same set of complaints that our competitor, AMD, has been making to regulators and courts around the world for more than 10 years."
Intel remains "confident that the worldwide microprocessor market is functioning normally and is highly competitive," the company said. "Intel's conduct has always been lawful, pro-competitive and beneficial to consumers." The company's response to the Commission's charges will show the allegations are "unfounded," Intel said.
It set forth some likely arguments it will make to the Commission: "consumers have benefited from prices that have gone down significantly, output has increased many times over and the performance of products, including ours, has improved exponentially."
The latest charges demonstrate that antitrust regulators worldwide are focused on protecting consumers from Intel's anticompetitive behavior, said Tom McCoy, AMD's vice president of legal affairs and chief administrative officer.
