EU files new competition charges against Intel

By Pete Harrison and David Lawsky

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union antitrust regulators made new accusations against chipmaker Intel Corp (INTC.O) on Thursday, saying it paid retailers not to sell PCs using chips made by rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD.N).

The "statement of objections" from the European Commission follows 2007 charges that Intel, the world's biggest microchip producer, gave computer makers rebates to limit their use of AMD chips or avoid them altogether.

The expansion of the accusation means the Commission is now weighing charges that Intel illegally fiddled with both the wholesale and retail channels in an effort to suppress its competitor.

"The Commission also considers at this stage of its analysis that all the types of conduct reinforce each other and are part of a single overall anti-competitive strategy aimed at excluding AMD or limiting its access to the market," the EU's executive body said in a statement.

A Commission statement said Intel had provided substantial rebates to a leading European personal computer retailer, conditioned on it selling only Intel-based PCs.

Secondly, the Commission said Intel paid a PC maker to delay the planned launch of a product line incorporating an AMD-based central processing unit (CPU), the chip at the heart of every PC.

Thirdly, it gave the same computer maker substantial rebates to encourage it to get all its CPUs for laptops from Intel, the Commission said.

Intel lawyer Steve Rodgers told Reuters he was disappointed by the new charges, which centered on whether it was lawful or not to issue price discounts.