EU Officials Raid Intel Offices

Eukariote writes "As part of the ongoing antitrust investigations, EU officials have raided Intel offices as well as offices of a number of IT firms manufacturing or selling computers. This follows the recent ruling by Japan's Fair Trade Commission declaring Intel's exclusionary practices illegal as well as the lawsuit filed by AMD."

Comments

More Info

[starrsoft]

Here's my story submission, which provides some more info, that didn't make the cut:

starrsoft writes, "Apparently AMD's lawsuit isn't just just a PR stunt, as some have suggested. In related news to today's earlier story about AMD's claims concerning Intel compilers discriminating against AMD, EU regulators raided several of Intel's European offices regarding 'an ongoing competition case.' From the article: 'European antitrust regulators raided Intel Corp. offices Tuesday, two weeks after rival U.S. chip-maker Advanced Micro Devices filed a lawsuit claiming Intel used its market dominance to bully computer makers away from using AMD chips... For more than four years, the EU has been investigating claims that Intel used unfair business practices to persuade clients to buy its microprocessors to the exclusion of rivals' chips.In March, the bloc said it was continuing its probe after a Japanese investigation found that Intel had violated antitrust rules there. The EU cooperated with the Japanese regulators.'

Re:More Info

[Vodak]

I believe that since Intel has been marketing many different processor types and technologies from Pentium 4, to Hyper Threading, to Centrino the marketing of "Intel Inside" has lost alot of it's luster.

As such it is my belief that the current way general consumers look at processors are simply price driven and to hell with preformance.. be it AMD, Intel, or anyone else for that matter.

We are in the world of 299 PCs... The new game systems will cost more then a end user PC platform.

Give the money back to the consumers, not AMD!

[garcia]

Even though the wording of the last sentence in the blurb is misleading as it seems to mean that AMD's lawsuit was ruled illegal by the JFTC:

Bruce Sewell, vice president and general counsel for Intel, said: "One of the core principles of competition policy is the notion that such policies should be based on sound economics. There is a broad consensus that competition regulators should only intervene where there is evidence of harm to consumers. It is apparent the JFTC's Recommendation did not sufficiently weigh these important principles."

So, chips that *could* be faster (if companies were not using Intel compilers), less expensive, and have other better qualities (heat, size, etc), isn't good for consumers? Sorry to say Bruce, but obviously no one believes you.

Anticompetitive strongarming via financial kickbacks is probably only good for Intel's market position and the companies that are selling Intel-based machines regardless of what your and your company's spin is. Unless you can, without a shred of doubt or lies, prove otherwise, I really suggest you just shutup and comply.

Personally, I want to see Intel give back to consumers directly. Anyone who has purchased an Intel machine since AMD's introduction to the market should be given a large rebate and I'm not talking about settlements like $13.55 check or shipping mass quantities of unwanted product to schools. I don't want to see AMD get any money out of this as it will do little for the market's consumers who had to deal with the anti-competitive behavior just as much as AMD did (if not more).

What kind

[savagedome]

What kind of RAID was it? 1, 2, 5...

Re:What kind

[ohyedoggies]

Someone mod parent redundant.

I Want Intel Punished as a Monopoly!

[Nom du Keyboard]

As I said in another thread that was not as sharply focused on this issue as this one: I would like to see Intel decleared -- and punished -- as a monopoly.

Why? Because I think it would result in lower prices to me. While regulated monopolies (phone, electric, gas, etc.) may be necessary in order to only build a single service infrastructure, I have yet to see a market monopoly declare: Now that we've eliminated the competition, let's lower prices and improve our service!

Different code being generated. Did they really think someone wouldn't figure this out?

American? Not.

[jasonhamilton]

The offices that were raided were located in Europe.

So you're saying that an EU office of Intel being raided by EU police will cause intel to move jobs away from the united states and into EU?

Wow I knew it

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

It seems quite clear that most European police officers massively read Slashdot while on the job.

I bet Intel is already bracing for another raid when the dupe is posted...

An old rumor

[Anonymous Coward]

Back in '98, a friend of mine was an intern for
a summer at Intel. He described a curious
practice. They would evidently hold practice
raids on employees. The legal staff would ask
the employee to drop what they were working on,
and step outside. The legal staff would rifle
through the office, looking for anything that
would help an antitrust suit. (E.g., even
memos that said "We dominate the chip fab
market...") They would then confiscate and
edit the documents that looked like they would
help an opponent in a suit. (E.g., rewrite to
"We are competitive in the chip fag market...")

So, I think the EU Intel offices are well
prepared for this raid.

Re:An old rumor

[Anonymous Coward]

We are competitive in the chip fag market

Wow, that'll really throw the raiding company for a loop.

"Didja find anything can help our case?"

"Nah, just this memo talking about cheap cigarettes, or homosexuals who pleasure themselves with potatoes, one of the two, but nothing about the microprocessor industry."

"Damn. Fancy a fag?"

Re:I can't believe Americans are supporting this

[Guppy06]

"a company based mainly in the United States and employs our people."

Posting from Indonesia, are we?

Raid?

[Sebastopol]

A bit overzealous term.

They walked in, asked for documents they had called about. Intel's lawyers were there waiting because they had been notified, and handed over everything they asked for.

So it wasn't a swat team breaking down doors catching barret with has pants down in front of a goat while grove was cramming confidential documents into his mouth.

Intel's automatic doors

[AtariAmarok]

You know, those Intel automatic doors? They'd been programmed to open real slow if someone involved with AMD is trying to get in.

My vision

[Antimatter3009]

After reading the headline, all I can picture are a bunch of special ops dressed in black crashing through the windows of the corporate headquarters throwing flashbangs and ripping computers out of the wall.

Re:Microsoft style case

[b0wl0fud0n]

There was a similar case brought against Pillsbury by Ben & Jerry's which more closely mirrors the case between AMD and Intel. Pillsbury (who own Haagen-Daz) were trying to drive Ben & Jerry's out of the premium ice cream market by refusing to sell products to stores giving freezer space to Ben & Jerry's. Ben & Jerry took Pillsbury to court and eventually won the case, forcing Pillsbury to pay damages and to allow Ben & Jerry's to be sold next to Haagen-Daz.

GCC?

[bhima]

This has me wondering How Much does AMD contribute to GCC?

Obviously expecting there main competitor to build their main complier is a flawed concept...