The European Commission raided the Munich offices of Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, the Commission and the chipmaker said on Tuesday.The Commission also raided retailers including Germany's Media Markt, a unit of trading company Metro, the company said.
"I can confirm that Commission officials have carried out unannounced inspections at the plants of a manufacturer of central processing units (CPUs)", said Jonathan Todd, a spokesman for the Commission in Brussels. He said retailers were also raided.
Todd said the raids were conducted because of possible violations of European Union
Later, in California, Intel said it was the CPU maker involved.
"There has been a raid on our offices in Munich. As is our normal practice,
The raids come as Intel faces a closed hearing in Brussels on March 11 and 12 on charges that it slashed prices below cost and offered huge rebates in an attempt to drive smaller competitor Advanced Micro Devices out of the market.
The Commission was already investigating German retailer Media Markt on charges surrounding its selling of computers. Media Markt sells PCs with Intel CPUs but not those by AMD.
The Commission is the EU's antitrust watchdog and has powers to fine companies up to 10 percent of their global annual revenue for competition abuses.
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