EU antitrust regulators said on Tuesday they were looking again into Intel Corp's business practices after rival US chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc declined to withdraw its complaint.
The European Commission reached a preliminary conclusion a couple of years ago that there was insufficient evidence to bring charges, but AMD disagreed and renewed its complaint, said EU spokeswoman Amelia Torres.
Therefore, the commission began "a new fact-finding phase" by sending letters to industry players requesting information, she said.
She stressed the probe was at the beginning and it was "too early to say if we have a case."
In 2002, the EU said it didn't have enough evidence to pursue AMD's complaint about microprocessors.
Even so, AMD has continued to press its case against Intel in Europe where, in the past, AMD accused the world's leading chipmaker of unfair sales practices such as offering loyalty rebates to customers and signing exclusive purchasing agreements.
"We've been in continual contact with the EU and shared information with them that we think may be useful," said AMD spokesman Michael Simonoff. "It seems that some information that we may have provided of late has sparked them to issue these letters."
He declined to disclose details on what information was provided to regulators.
Intel has not received any additional requests for information, said company spokesman Chuck Mulloy.
"Should we receive those questions, we will answer them," he said. "We continue to believe our business practices are fair and lawful."
Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court heard arguments in April and is expected to rule this month on another element of the case -- AMD's request for confidential documents from a patent dispute between Intel and Intergraph Corp. AMD believes the information would be of interest to the Europeans.
That case, however, focuses more on the exchange of information between governments, and less on the content of the documents, AMD's Simonoff said.
"The information that is being discussed in the Supreme Court case is pretty dated at this point," he said. Still, the documents could illustrate a pattern of past business practices, he added.
AMD's complaint isn't Intel's only headache in Europe. In April this year, the EU said it is investigating whether some European governments illegally favored Intel chips in public procurement of computers.
In that case, EU officials didn't accuse Intel of wrongdoing but are investigating why governments put Intel-only clauses in bid requirements.
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