Processors Toolkit

Intel responds to EC antitrust charges

Colin Barker ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 30 Jul 2007 13:24 BST

Intel on Friday published a statement denying rival AMD's claims of anti-competitive behaviour.

The Intel statement, penned by the company's vice-president and general counsel, Bruce Sewell, stated that AMD's allegations were unfounded, as evidenced by the fact the chip market was healthy and competitive. "The evidence that this industry is fiercely competitive and working is compelling," he said.

In what could be seen as a reference to AMD's recent poor financial performance, Sewell went on to state: "When competitors perform and execute, the market rewards them. When they falter and under-perform, the market responds accordingly."

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Last week, AMD announced a second-quarter net loss of $600m (£292m) compared with a profit of $88.9m in the same period a year ago. However, revenue was $1.38bn, up 13 percent from $1.22bn a year earlier.

The European Commission has spent years investigating Intel's tactics to determine whether it has acted unfairly to preserve its dominance over AMD, and finally issued formal charges against Intel on Thursday for allegedly using illegal tactics against its rival, according to Reuters reports.

But Intel claims the complaint being heard by the European Commission does not amount to a conviction, or anything like it. "The Commission has an obligation to investigate those complaints," Sewell said. "However, a statement of objections contains only preliminary allegations and does not itself amount to a finding that there has been a violation of European Union law."

For its part, Intel is "confident that the microprocessor market segment is functioning normally and that Intel's conduct has been lawful, pro-competitive, and beneficial to consumers," wrote Sewell.

"While we would certainly have preferred to avoid the cost and inconvenience of establishing that our competitive conduct in Europe has been lawful, the Commission's decision to issue a statement of objections means that, at last, Intel will have the opportunity to hear and respond to the allegations made by our primary competitor," Sewell said.