International Law

Intel, the Ombudsman and the Commission's Antitrust Investigation

By Bartolus

The European Ombudsman has made public a version of his decision concluding his investigation into misconduct and maladministration by the Commission's DG Competition.

Intel had complained to the European Ombudsman alleging two things. First that the Commission had failed to take minutes of a meeting with a senior Dell executive held on 23 August 2006, even though the meeting directly concerned the subject-matter of the Commission's anti-trust investigation of Intel. Second that the Commission encouraged Dell to enter into an information exchange agreement with micro-chip producer and Intel competitor AMD thus giving AMD access to information contained in the Commission's investigation file.

The Ombudsman did find that the Commission's DG Competition had committed maladministration by failing to take a proper note of that meeting and that its investigation file did not include the agenda of the meeting. That failure did not breach Intel's rights of the defense, however.

As to the second allegation, the Ombudsman did not conclude that the Commission had committed maladministration but did find that the Commission failed to make a proper note of a telephone call between the Commission and Dell, in which the information exchange agreement was discussed. Such a note would have helped to clarify the relevant facts. He thus recommended that the Commission's DG Competition be more professional and rigorous in keeping proper notes of meeting and telephone calls in order to reduce the risk of doctoring the file.

You can find a summary of the Ombudsman's decision here.

Full post as published by EU Law Blog on November 18, 2009 (boomark / email).