They also conducted inspections at the premises of PC manufacturers that AMD alleges have been offered unfair inducements to buy all their microprocessors from Intel.
The investigations are being carried out within the framework of an ongoing competition case, said a spokesperson for the European Commission. He said it was part of an investigation into possible antitrust violations.
Intel chief executive Paul Otellini recently said Intel has always respected the laws of the countries in which we operate.
The raid increases pressure on the microprocessor giant. Last month AMD filed an antitrust complaint in US Federal District Court in Delaware and claimed that 38 OEMs of PCs, laptops, and servers, as well as parts distributors, have been convinced by threats and the withholding of rebates to shun AMD’s chips.
The European Commission dawn raids show that Intel cannot and should not escape the scrutiny of antitrust officials around the world – nor can Intel escape the consequences of its anti-competitive actions, which raise prices, threaten innovation and harm consumers, said AMD exec VP of legal affairs Thomas McCoy, in a prepared statement.
AMD’s Japanese subsidiary also is claiming $55m in damages in two lawsuits against Intel. Its actions are based on findings in March by Japan’s Fair Trade Commission that Intel KK had violated the country’s Antimonopoly Act.
We are sure that today’s dawn raids will yield even more insight into Intel’s antitrust violations, McCoy said.
AMD has argued that Intel is unlikely to leave incriminating evidence in its own files and a more likely source of intelligence is likely to be in emails at PC companies where those negotiating with Intel reported back to their managers the line that Intel was taking.
It has already won US court approval for subpoenas to ensure that Intel’s customers retain documents showing their dealings with the microprocessor giant. To this end, it has sent letters to 32 PC makers, microprocessor distributors, and PC retailers asking them to suspend their normal documents-destruction policies.
The dispute between AMD and Intel goes to the heart of the world’s PC industry, and Dell, Fujitsu, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Lenovo, NEC, Sony, and Toshiba have all been dragged into the action.
What irks AMD is that having been forced to match and in some cases surpass Intel on the technological front, it has huge problems winning orders and Intel is responsible to 90% of the microprocessor market by value.
The European Commission has a surprising degree of power over US Corporations. In 2001, it blocked the General Electric Co’s planned $42bn acquisition of Honeywell International Inc on the grounds it would be anti-competitive.
