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Antitrust regulators raid Intel Corp and computer retailers

EU antitrust regulators raided Intel Corp and computer retailers on Tuesday, searching for evidence that the companies may have broken rules to assure competition in the market for computer chips, the European Commission and Intel said.

Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy confirmed that the company's Munich office in Germany had been raided and the company would cooperate closely with the investigation.

Europe's largest consumer electronics retailer, Germany-based Media Markt, said it was also raided, as was Britain's DSG International, which owns Dixons, Currys, PC City and PC World.

The surprise inspections were the EU's first major move in response to complaints from smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc, alleging that Intel pressed major stores to avoid computers using AMD chips.

Intel, the world's biggest chip maker, is already facing formal EU charges of monopoly abuse for below-cost customer rebates and pricing that the EU says undercut AMD and discourage manufacturers from building computers with their chips.

The new raids focus on the final link of the supply chain -- the stores that select computers to sell directly to customers. AMD claims Intel's wide range of bullying tactics unfairly shut out rivals.

The EU said there was no strict deadline for deciding whether to file charges or drop the case. EU fines can go as high as 10 percent of a company's yearly global revenue. Last year, Intel's revenue amounted to US$6.98 billion.

Intel, based in Santa Clara, California, sells more than three-quarters of all microprocessors that act as the brains of computers using Microsoft Corp's Windows operating system.

The EU formally charged Intel in July last year.
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