The European Commission is moving toward punitive action against Intel for violating antitrust law, according to reports.
The European Commission has sent to EU member states a draft decision that rules against the world's largest chipmaker, according to reports from Reuters and Bloomberg.
The Commission may deliver a formal decision within weeks, based on past practice, according to Reuters.
In the draft decision, the Commission states that Intel abused its market power in violation of EU antitrust law.
Intel's only real competition in the worldwide PC processor market is Advanced Micro Devices, which sued Intel in 2005 on antitrust grounds.
The 500-page draft was circulated to 27 "national competition authorities" over the past few weeks, according to Bloomberg.
Intel has been wrangling with the EU since 2001, when AMD filed a complaint.
Last July, the Commission made additional charges against Intel for abusing its dominant position in the chip market in Europe. The charges include offering inducements to European retailers for not buying processors from AMD.
Intel was also charged with paying "a leading Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)" to delay the launch of a product with an AMD CPU, and giving "substantial" rebates to the same OEM if it bought only CPUs from Intel.
Intel had no comment.
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.
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