Thanks to forum member jerry for also posting in Neowin"s BPN
European antitrust lawyers raided Intel offices across Europe merely two weeks after its chief rival, Advanced Micro Devices, filed a multi-billion dollar lawsuit in a Delaware federal court. A statement from the European Comission explained that it was merely inspecting offices of companies that make and sell computers. A separate statement from the European Union acknowledged that the inspections involved officials from the EU"s antitrust department, and that several Intel locations in Europe were visited. Intel confirmed the visits by staff members of the EC, but declined to mention how many were involved or what type of information was being sought.
The EU has been investigating Intel"s business practices for more than four years, but recent attention from the AMD lawsuit has brought Intel antitrust talk to the forefront in the news media once more. In 2002, the EU cleared Intel of any wrongful business practices, but investigations were resumed after AMD refused to drop a previous complaint.