European Commission examines Intel-specific equipment orders

By Simon Aughton

Posted on 13 Oct 2004 at 14:58

The European Commission has launched an examination into why four European countries specified Intel chips when ordering computer equipment.

The EC will ask public bodies in France, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden for information on several orders which, by referring to a specific brand, may contravene a directive on public supply contracts. It is also investigating whether orders which specified a minimum clock speed for the computers ran contrary to Article 28 of the EC treaty prohibiting barriers to intra-community trade.

The Commission's statement reads, 'Under European law on public procurement, a brand may be specified only if it is otherwise impossible to describe the product sufficiently precisely and intelligibly. There are, however, ways of describing microprocessors and particularly the performance required. For example, there are various ìbenchmarksî for this purpose. Merely specifying a clock rate is not sufficient for assessing the performance of a computer.'

The member states in question have two months to respond; if the Commission finds that European law has been infringed they will be forced to 'rectify the irregularities' in the award of those contracts. Failure to do so could land them in court.

Investigations into similar cases in Germany and Italy were instigated earlier this year.