Intel has accused the European Commission of abusing procedures in its probe of allegations that the US chip giant sought to gain an unfair advantage over its main rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and asked that the charges be dropped.
European regulators filed fresh antitrust charges against the world’s largest computer chipmaker in July, accusing it of abusing its dominant position to try to squeeze out AMD.
In reply, Intel asked that the commission “annul the decisions” on the basis that they “contain errors in law” and that it pay the costs the US chip company has incurred to defend itself.
Intel’s demands were published this week in the online edition of the EU’s official journal.
Intel’s move was met with criticism by the head of the Computer and Communications Industry Association.
“We are disappointed that Intel has apparently chosen to attack the law enforcement organization that is investigating it,” association president Ed Black said in a statement.
“This is a tactic we have seen before by other companies when they have concluded they cannot effectively argue the merits of their wrongdoing,” he said.
“The European Commission’s credibility is strong and as the historical record demonstrates it has consistently struck the right balance in antitrust action,” he said.
The commission sent a letter to Intel in July outlining its complaints that Intel offered discounts to a major European personal computer distributor to favor its products, paid a PC maker to delay marketing a model line using AMD chips, and also paid it to use Intel’s own microprocessors in preference.
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