Intel asked for more time in EU lawsuit

Needs to prepare "a full and fair defense of the company"

View more images

20 October 2008 12:57 GMT / By Katie Scott

Intel has appealed for more time in a EU lawsuit, which alleges that the chip maker paid a retailer to favour computers made with its technology.

The chip manufacturer has asked the European Union's second highest court for more time to respond to allegations made against in July.

In particular, Intel is accused to trying to discourage retailers from selling computers with chips made by rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy explained: "This is a procedural issue. The specifics of the filing are confidential but Intel has taken this step in order to insure that it has the ability to conduct a full and fair defense of the company. We believe this is a fundamental fairness issue".

But the EU Competition Commission has made a statement against this arguing that Intel is simply stalling: "The Commission considers it gave ample time to Intel to respond to the objections compared with equivalent cases with other companies".