European Commission raids Intel offices in Munich
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Intel offices in Munich were raided by the European Commission on Tuesday as part of an ongoing antitrust investigation.Confirming the raids, Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said the company fully cooperated with the EC. He declined further comment.The Commission inspected the premises of CPU manufacturers and PC retailers, said Jonathan Todd, spokesman for the EC, declining to comment on which companies were raided.The offices of German consumer electronics vendor Media Markt and DSG International, which runs Dixons in the U.K., were also raided, according to multiple newspaper and wire service reports.The raids relate to concerns of the abuse of a dominant market position, the EC said in a statement.&quot;Surprise inspections are a preliminary step in investigations into suspected infringements of EC competition law,&quot; the Commission said. The inspections do not prove guilt of anticompetitive behavior or prejudge the outcome of the investigation, the Commission said.The raid comes on the heels of multiple complaints and lawsuits filed by Intel competitor Advanced Micro Devices with authorities in the European Union, U.S., Japan, South Korea, and Japan, charging Intel with monopolistic behavior.In 2006, AMD said it planned to file a complaint with German authorities regarding Intel&#39;s alleged anticompetitive behavior. AMD alleged that Intel paid German retail chain Media Markt not to stock PCs containing AMD processors, citing a letter to a supplier in which the retailer said it would only buy PCs with Intel processors.As part of ongoing inquiries into Intel&#39;s monopolistic behavior, the EC earlier raided Intel&#39;s offices in 2005. Authorities in Japan raided Intel&#39;s offices in 2004.
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German government plans to spy on terror suspects by deploying malicious e-mails draw sharp criticism.
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Tuesday&#39;s&#160;raid on Intel&#39;s Munich office&#160;by European Commission investigators marks the latest development in one of several antitrust cases that have dogged the world&#39;s largest chip maker for years. Here&#39;s a rundown of Intel&#39;s brushes with antitrust investigators and lawsuits around the world since 1990:
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France, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden are violating European Union law by favoring chips made by Intel over rival AMD when they buy computers, the European Commission said in formal charges filed on Wednesday.
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(InfoWorld) - Police raided IBM's Moscow headquarters Wednesday. Speaking Thursday, IBM spokesman Jonathan Batty confirmed that the raid had taken place. However, he wouldn't say if the authorities seized documents or computer equipment. "We're stating for the time being that we are cooperating with the Russian authorities but declining to give any further comment now," Batty said. An unidentified law enforcement source was quoted by the Interfax News Agency as saying the raid could pertain to imports of black-market computers for Russia's State Pension Fund. Interfax reported that 10 locations around Moscow were raided by masked officers carrying rifles, although it was not immediately clear which law enforcement agency the officers represented. Also reportedly raided were the headquarters of the State Pension Fund, which manages $57.5 billion in pensions; the Information and Computer Technologies Industry Association; Lanit Group, a Russian company that deals in outsourcing software development, and R-Style Group, a supplier of computers, peripherals and office equipment, according to the Moscow Times.
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The European Union&#39;s head office Wednesday expanded its probe into whether EU governments are illegally requiring that the computers they buy must contain microprocessors made by Intel Corp.
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Antitrust regulators raided the Munich office of Intel Corp. searching for evidence that the company may have broken cartel or monopoly rules, the European Commission said.
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The documents in question were brought to court during Intel&#39;s legal battle with Intergraph. AMD believes they show its arch-rival to be guilty of anti-competitive behaviour, which is why it wanted the EC to take a look.
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The chipmaker says police raided four companies that were relabeling its processors to make low-end models look pricier.
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Sources say... The European Competition Commission is likely to press formal charges against chip giant Intel.â¦
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France, the Netherlands, Finland and  Sweden are violating European Union law by favoring chips made  by Intel over rival AMD when they buy computers, the European  Commission said in formal charges filed on Wednesday.
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A recent raid on Intel's Munich office by EC investigators is the latest in a long history of antitrust woes.
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As antitrust pressure against Intel appeared to ease today, the European Commission filed complaints against France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland saying they unfairly
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The European Commission confirmed on Thursday it had raided SPVC manufacturing plants in Britain in connection with the planned sale of the unit by Norwegian aluminum producer Norsk Hydro .
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(InfoWorld) - In the five years since terrorists attacked the U.S., Europe has been the target of extremist attacks, as has India. Bombings in London and Madrid and a recent failed attempt to blow up passenger trains in Germany have prompted a security clampdown never seen on the Continent. Throughout the European Union, governments are grappling with how to guard against terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, Indian IT services companies have beefed up efforts to protect data. The discovery of bombs in two German trains in July pushed up several security measures on the political agenda there. In September, the German government agreed to a new antiterror database, which will be available to authorities across the country and contain information such as a person's religion, travel history, telephone number and Internet data and bank details. It also approved increased use of video surveillance in public areas. These measures reflect a gigantic shift in thinking about privacy in Germany, which has been highly sensitive about data protection and surveillance because of its Nazi history and, more recently, the Stasi secret police in the former communist-run East Germany. The need to tighten security has created demand for new technologies to help authorities combat terrorism. The German subsidiary of IBM Corp., for instance, is working on new technology that will enable computers -- not human beings -- to filter information from the cameras monitoring public areas and other locations. Two German companies have developed a new biometric system for identifying airline passengers. Lufthansa Systems Group GmbH, the IT services arm of German airline Lufthansa AG, and high-security document producer Bundesdruckerei GmbH have developed the SecBoard system. The companies hope that the system, designed to conduct biometric checks on passengers prior to boarding an aircraft, will play a significant role in "trusted passenger" programs planned by the airline industry to increase security. In the U.K., the government is close to activating part of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) of 2000 that deals with encrypted data, one in a set of powers covering electronic surveillance and wiretapping. Authorities say the increased use of encryption is hampering their access to information on suspectsâ computers. RIPA would allow police to demand that a suspect decrypt data or face up to two years in jail. The encryption measure in RIPA has remained dormant since the techniques werenât widely used when the law was passed, according to the U.K. Home Office. Terrorist suspects already face up to five years for failing to decrypt data or provide an encryption key. But critics contend the law, which would apply in more than terrorism-related investigations, gives too much power to law enforcement and has the potential for abuse. High-ranking officials could demand the decryption of data without a court order, and the law binds to secrecy those served with a request. Experts say the law could increase the chance that, if seized, a companyâs mission-critical data could be mishandled. Elsewhere in Europe, heads of state met to discuss 57 antiterrorism measures two weeks after the March 11, 2004 bombings of four crowded commuter trains in Madrid. Among the measures discussed were the surveillance of telecommunications, Internet communications and air transportation. Civil liberties groups accused them of using the fight against terrorism as an excuse to increase police powers. E.U. legislation was slow to follow but, from September 2007, telecom carriers and ISPs (Internet service providers) must keep data on all mobile and fixed-line calls for between six months and two years. From March 2009, they must keep data on VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) calls, Internet connections and e-mail messages. Law enforcement officials will be able to demand the date and time of calls and messages, but not their content, and identifying information of the calling or sending and receiving parties. In India, the Sept. 11 attacks were not a watershed event because the country experienced frequent attacks by Kashmiri separatist groups demanding independence. Even before Sept. 11, some of the large Indian IT services companies had hardened data centers supporting their offshore businesses, said T. R. Madan Mohan, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan Inc. After Web sites of a ministry of the Indian government and an Indian atomic energy agency were hacked, and anti-India messages posted on these sites, Indian businesses showed increased concern about the need for intrusion detection and related security measures, he added. Infosys Technologies Ltd., Indiaâs second largest outsourcer, already had disaster recovery and business continuity plans in place before Sept. 11, said a spokeswoman for the company in Bangalore. However, those attacks brought the threat of terrorism into sharp focus for Indiaâs export-oriented industries, such as software outsourcing, because U.S. and European customers began worrying about the preparedness of their Indian suppliers for terrorist attacks. (Reported and written by John Blau in Dusseldorf, Germany; Peter Sayer in Paris; Jeremy Kirk in London; and John Ribeiro in Bangalore, India, and assembled by Grant Gross in Washington, D.C.)
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Germany's Federal Cartel Office and prosecutors have raided the offices of seven confectionery groups including Kraft, Nestle, Mars and Ritter on suspicion of chocolate price fixing, a press report said Monday.
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German prosecutors accused one of the countryâs most prominent business executives of tax evasion on Thursday after conducting raids on his home and office.