European Commission regulators have taken over a German antitrust investigation into allegations that Intel put pressure on a major electronics retailer to forgo using processors from competitor AMD.
Germany"s antitrust agency, Bundeskartellamt, received a complaint from AMD alleging that Intel had abused its dominant market position by putting pressure on major electronics retailer Media Markt to not sell AMD"s chips. Because the Commission found similarities with its existing probe into Intel, it took over the German investigation in late August, Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd said.
Last year, the European Commission raided several European Intel offices as well as offices of companies that manufacture or sell computers.
Also last year, Intel agreed to abide by recommendations from the Japan Fair Trade Commission,which had launched its own probe. The recommendations called for Intel to halt its practice of requiring PC makers to restrict the use of competitors" chips in exchange for monetary rebates. Intel accepted the recommendations but disagreed with the facts underlying the allegations.
And earlier this year, the Korean Fair Trade Commission sought more documents from Intel relating to its antitrust investigation into the chip giant.