Intel antitrust trial delayed again

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 6 Jun 2008 at 08:33

The trial between Intel and AMD over alleged anti-competitive practices has been pushed back until 2010.

In the lawsuit originally filed in 2005, AMD accused Intel of giving computer makers illegal discounts and retaliating against manufacturers who used AMD chips or stores that gave significant shelf space to computers with AMD chips.

Early wrangling has centred on the number of witnesses each side can bring to the stand, with AMD lobbying the court for 486 depositions and Intel attempting to limit each company to 75.

The two sides will now split around 250 witnesses, with AMD getting slightly more than Intel, according to spokespeople for the companies.

This is the second major delay to the trial, which was originally slated for a 2007 date but was pushed back after Intel admitted it had erased documents and emails related to the case.

Korean fine for Intel

This is not the only investigation Intel is facing. The Korea Fair Trade Commission recently fined the chip maker $25.6 million for abusing its dominant position, a decision Intel intends to appeal

The US Federal Trade Commission also has an informal probe underway into whether Intel abused its dominant position, while the New York state attorney general opened a formal probe in January.

Last July, the European Commission in Brussels charged Intel with selling chips below cost and offering customers huge rebates in an illegal attempt to drive AMD out of the market.