EU court rejects Intel bid for delay
Updated at 3:45 p.m. PST with Intel comments.
On Tuesday, an EU court rejected Intel's bid to delay a deadline for the chipmaker to address antitrust concerns.
In October, Intel filed a petition with the Court of First Instance, Europe's second-highest court, asking for a delay in the investigation by the European Commission so the company could gain access to additional documents to bolster its defense.
The world's largest chipmaker is accused by the European Commission of giving rebates to a large retailer with the aim of discouraging the retailer from using chips from rival Advanced Micro Devices.
Intel has said in the past that its practices are lawful and do not harm consumers.
"While Intel is disappointed with today's ruling on interim measures the decision has no bearing on the merits of this case," Intel said in a statement Tuesday. "Certain AMD documents were made part of the record in the European proceeding and Intel sought to demonstrate that those documents indicated that other highly relevant documents existed," Intel said.
AMD welcomed the ruling. "The order is entirely consistent with the continuous and clear case law on this issue and Intel's appeal was simply an attempt to delay the Commission's decision making process," AMD Executive Vice President, Legal, Corporate and Public Affairs Tom McCoy said in a statement.
As a result of the ruling, the Commission is not legally obligated to review any additional documentation Intel would file to defend itself.
Brooke Crothers has served as an editor at large at CNET News, an editor at Dow Jones' Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, and a senior editor at InfoWorld. His CNET blog covers chip technology and computer systems, and how they define the computing experience. He also contributes to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. Follow Brooke on Twitter @mbrookec. 
I like AMD, but the EU trying to milk money out of Intel, I believe is more unethical than what Intel is doing.
It does not seem like justice to allow a company to bring charges and then fail to allow the defense to gather the proper documentation to refute the charges.
Justice should be blind when making a decision. The EU is very different from the USA.
Shame on the EU!
The US government should intervene and maybe retaliate if necessary. Maybe sue SAP for possible antitrust violations?
- by Tête January 28, 2009 7:30 PM PST
- Once you're a multinational, there is no Us vs. Them. Boycott the EU? Do you think Microsoft and Intel are there out of charity?
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(8 Comments)What a bunch of Sarah Palin voters!