Intel under Japanese antitrust microscope

April 8, 2004 – Trade officials for Japan’s Fair Trade Commission raided three of Intel Corp.’s company’s offices on April 8, including its domestic headquarters in Tsukuba, investigating possible violations of antitrust laws.

The search targeted possible evidence that Intel used anticompetitive practices, including offering large discounts and threatening to stop shipments, to keep PC makers from using processors from AMD and other competitors, according to several media reports.

Japan accounted for about 9% of Intel’s $30.1 billion in total worldwide revenues in 2003, a 42% increase from the previous year, and about 85% of all PCs shipped in Japan in 4Q03 incorporated Intel chips, according to the Associated Press. Intel faced similar antitrust scrutiny in the US in the late 1990s, but the FTC ended its investigation in 2000 without taking any action.

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