The European Commission has asked four European Union
countries to justify why they favour Intel processors in computers
for public authorities.
The commission has asked France, the Netherlands, Finland and
Sweden for information on why invitations for tenders to supply
computers for public authorities specified they should contain
Intel or equivalent microprocessors, or processors using a specific
clock rate.
A brand name can only be specified in invitations for tender if
it is otherwise impossible to describe the product sufficiently,
and merely specifying the clock rate is not sufficient to indicate
the required performance of a computer, the commission said.
The commission is the executive branch of the 25 nation EU.
Intel's largest competitor, Advanced Micro Devices, stopped
quoting clock rate as an indicator of chip performance a few years
ago, claiming that other criteria were a better indicator and that
focus on clock rate tended to favour Intel.
AMD Europe spokesman Jens Drews said that the company was "very
pleased with the action. We see it as a sign that the commission is
very serious about taking care that there is a level playing field
in the procurement process across Europe".
"This is really a matter between the staff members of the European
Commission and the individual countries as to how they specify
products," said Chuck Mulloy, an Intel spokesman. Intel has
complied with several commission requests for information, he
added.
The commission said there had been about a dozen invitations to
tender in France that had made the request for Intel or equivalent
processors or processors with a clock rate above a specified minium
which, it said, would favour Intel.
In the case of the Netherlands, the Municipality of Amsterdam
submitted an invitation to tender for the supply of computers,
notebooks and monitors and related services and an invitation to
tender for the supply of hardware by a consortium of contracting
authorities. In both cases, the provision of Intel microprocessors
was specified.
In Finland three universities published invitations for supply
of computers specifying Intel processors and in Sweden the
commission was concerned about invitations by a municipality, a
university, the national police authority and a regional authority.
The police invitation stipulated the use of Intel Centrino or
equivalent microprocessors.
The move is the first step in a legal process which could see
the four member states taken to the European Court of Justice. The
countries have two months to reply to the commission. If the
commission is unsatisfied with their response, they will be
required to make changes to their invitations to tender.
The commission asked Italy and Germany for the same information
in the first half of this year.
Germany replied in June and Italy in July and the commission is
still studying their responses before deciding what further action
to take.
Simon Taylor writes for IDG News Service